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noir_blood
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So with Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler being released soon, having just finished the Bret Hart book, and having also bought tickets for Wrestlemania 25, I guess it would be fair to say I have pro wrestling in my brain.
The funny thing is, that I haven't consistently watched wrestling in about four years. I keep up with the storylines through the net, but haven't really sat down to watch a full show. But that doesn't keep me from wanting to talk about it every now and then.
So anyone else watch or used to watch wrestling? What promotion? What were your favorite moments, and what were the ones that made you embarrased to be a fan?
Also, apparently Aronofsky's been sorta pushing for wrestlers to be admitted into the studio actor's guild;
He has a point, and it's ironic that Vince Mcmahon has been pushing for his stars to not be considered 'wrestlers' but instead 'entertainers', yet he still labels his shows as "sports programing" to get away from having the unionize like that.
I think a union or allowing them to enter the guild would be great, but at the same time, would it hurt the business? Is there any incentive for the big stars on top of the promotions to join a union?
The funny thing is, that I haven't consistently watched wrestling in about four years. I keep up with the storylines through the net, but haven't really sat down to watch a full show. But that doesn't keep me from wanting to talk about it every now and then.
So anyone else watch or used to watch wrestling? What promotion? What were your favorite moments, and what were the ones that made you embarrased to be a fan?
Also, apparently Aronofsky's been sorta pushing for wrestlers to be admitted into the studio actor's guild;
“There’s really no reason why these guys are not in SAG,†Aronofsky told Newsday. “They’re in front of a camera performing and doing stunts, and they should have that protection. They should have health insurance and they should be protected."
He has a point, and it's ironic that Vince Mcmahon has been pushing for his stars to not be considered 'wrestlers' but instead 'entertainers', yet he still labels his shows as "sports programing" to get away from having the unionize like that.
I think a union or allowing them to enter the guild would be great, but at the same time, would it hurt the business? Is there any incentive for the big stars on top of the promotions to join a union?
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Then I really quit bothering with it when HHH wouldn't give up the title for... what? Going on ten years now? Boooooring. No amount of beer could repair that snooze fest.
Well, to be fair, the real sports are indeed currently kicking the ass of the WWE in lots of areas, but I still like wrestling because when you throw in the right elements, it's(or was) entertaining as hell.
While some of the fighters out there do have charisma in the "man he's a bad ass" field, the wrestling world has far more entertaining characters I think. The Rock was awesome, so was Stone Cold, Ric Flair, and Mick Foley.
And while the matches can be absurb and silly, they can also be highly entertaining when you get two wrestlers that know what they're doing. It's been said before, and it aptly applies. Pro wrestling is soap operas for men.
Edit for sheep- Yea, that's the main thing that's kept me from really going back. Every time I catch it on, it's the same guys from seven or eight years ago. At least Jericho got the title for a while. And Triple H becomes even more annoying when he has to play the babyface role.
Wrestling has always been fun for me to watch, I just enjoy the scripted fights so much more then the UFC type of stuff. I've been much more interested in watching lately again after I heard Jeff Hardy won the title. I've always liked the Hardy's and Jeff has been due this for a long time. It is good to see him get his head on straight long enough to let it happen. I just hope he can continue with it.
Ha... I just Wiki'd him for old times sake... he's apparently a right-wing anti-gay commentator. How ironic...
The best match ever ~ part 1
The second time Mick went through the cage wasn't scripted, the cage just buckled. That musta been some shock to the system.
edit: if you load the video, a loud, awful song comes on before the actual introduction starts.
WARNING
WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST ENTERTAINING VIDEO EVER POSTED ON THE INTERNET, EVER.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laiZgrIpbcA
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I haven't watched wrestling in years, Cena killed most interest I had in it and all of my favorites would never get out of the undercard to move up. Liked Batista as a big man, but he gets hurt a lot and when I watched he got kind of typecast as the big angry man, where his best segments was playing the straight man to someone elses crazy.
pleasepaypreacher.net
pleasepaypreacher.net
I've been a huge wrestling fan over the years. I've seen many great moments (Survivor Series '97) and many horrible ones (Katie Vick). I've seen great superstars become shells of them former selves (HHH, HBK). Hell I've even cried over some of these guys (Owen and Eddie). It's been a long strange journey watching this show every week.
I'll tell you this, one of the things that sunk the WWE over the last couple years was Brock Lesnar. Vince banked everything on Lesnar. Lesnar was his next Austin, keeping the company near the top in ratings. And then Lesnar bails on him suddenly. This really hurt them. They had no one to fall back on. They didn't have another guy as popular as Lesnar as they did with Rock and Austin a few years previous. It was Lesnar and _____. So they pushed Cena to the forefront, and it worked for a little while, but it slowly dropped off. The youth movement of this past summer (CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Ted Dibiase Jr, and Cody Rhodes all as champs) I thought was a fantastic move to change up the pace of things. But sadly, everything's back to business as usual (Cena, Regal, Miz and Morrison).
Btw, I can clearly be spotted in the Royal Rumble 2002 DVD with a gigantic HHH sign that took 2 of us to hold up.
Bill Simmons on The Wrestler. This is a fantastic read on the state of pro wrestling and the movie itself.
pleasepaypreacher.net
- Wrestlers appeared to be botching their moves more and more.
- WWF's vulgarity for the sake of vulgarity.
- WCW's habit of throwing out a storyline after the week was over and never mentioning it again, but then sticking to some of the stupidest storylines and matches ever.
- The nWo should have not been allowed to drag on that long. And they should have not done what they did to the Wolfpac. Dear god that's not how you end one of the best factions ever.
- what the WWF did to Booker T.
- what the WWF did to Lucha Libre wrestling that the WCW pulled off so well for so long.
and then the completely botched merger of the WWF and WCW.
I try to keep up via youtube/wiki, but the writing has gone downhill. TNA is the closest thing to the 'old' wrestling I can see at this moment.
On serious topic:
They don't need to unionize, because it won't change Vince's stranglehold and shitty storylines. It'll just continue to perpetuate the big guys holding onto belts forever and the young guys never getting anything. They do, however, need to have a season. People cannot take that kind of punishment year round. Make it run from like, late march to september/october. Have your Wrestlemania 'post season' in November if you really must. Off time is for recuperation/contract negoations/ and so on.
Being a huge Hogan/NWO White fan as a kid, I disagree.
That shit was glorious.
I'd also like to add that the shafting of Randy Savage also helped swear me off the show.
The Fingerpoke of Doom is not what fucked that whole story up. What fucked that up was the beatdown of Goldberg after the Fingerpoke of Doom. It made Goldberg look weak and that there was no challengers to the nWo. Without a strong face opposing the heels, it makes it look like the heels always win and no one wants that. Even if it's cool at first (nWo formation, DX), it wears on people.
What should have happened is Goldberg should have came down and single handedly cleaned house. Then have faced either Hogan, Nash or both at Starrcade or something similar. Months of build up would have led to an epic PPV buy rate.
Which brings me to another point that I heard Hogan bring up, and I completely agree with him. There's too much TV and too many PPVs. In the 90s, storylines and feuds would go on for longer, making the inevitable match that much more exciting. We saw it with Hogan/Andre at WM3 and again with Hogan/Warrior at WM7. Two long drawn out feuds that last a couple months and really get people frothing at the mouth to see the two guys go at it. Now? A PPV every 3 weeks, that leads for short build up and quick story lines. It's almost like Wrestling with ADD.
I think Lesnar wanted to be taken seriously. He probably saw that professional wrestling doesn't have the luster it once had.
Yeah, the whole NWO Red = Extreme Culture thing was grating.
That's why when the title changed hands like it did that I was super happy.
TNA was good until they started to look like OLD WcW where they take some old headliner and have him hold their belt or do a match or something. I mean when you bring back Sting and he wins a belt while guys like The Fallen Angel or AJ Styles struggle to get importance you're doing it wrong (sadly that's what gets ratings, these WWF cast offs or WcW hasbeens).
pleasepaypreacher.net
I think it's true what they say, that Vince simply can't allow anything that he didn't create to become succesful. The whole invasion is the best example of this, because man, that's an angle that should have lasted a good couple of years, and instead it was over in what, six months? And things weren't helped when shortly after we start seeing alla the big name wcw stars show up, and can't help but think; Where were you six months ago?
Firewulf- He co owns it I thought..doesn't like Panda energy have a pretty big stock on it?
Well that and he was tired of being on the road 250 days a year. That was his public gripe. It wasn't being taken seriously or money. It was just soooo much travel.
I mean shit, Lesnar was the man. He was putting asses in the seats. His Hell in the Cell match with the Undertaker was a god damn classic. His fued with Angle leading up to WMXX (despite the botched shooting star press) was nothing short of entertaining. The Superplex that collapsed the ring on Smackdown that him and Big Show did? So god damn good. That powerbomb that nearly broke Holly's neck because Holly is an old prick? Anyone that knew what they were watching when it happened thought it was awesome.
Lesnar was the shit.
But he was tired of it.
That's the only thing that would explain how it gets run so god awfully at times. For me one thing that sells a wrestler is his finisher. And how Petey Williams isn't the champ forever for his Canadian destroyer is beyond me.
pleasepaypreacher.net
pleasepaypreacher.net
Damn straight. I doubt anything will ever top that match.
LoL: failboattootoot
I remember watching the wrestlemania with Kurt and Brock, cringing every time kurt when for a suplex because we knew of his back issues. And then, Brock goes up to the turnbuckle to do his fabled shooting star press, only for him to horribly fuck it up.
My personal favorite match is probably Rock vs. Austin at wrestlemania 17. Sure, there's better technical ones, and bloodier ones, but that particular match had everything. I love how from the opening belt they go at each other, and bust all their big moves in the first ten minutes and can still make the match dramatic.
It's only somewhat tarnished by the ending.
You're crazy Preacher. CM Punk is good, but the GTF fucking blows. The F-5 was brilliant.
You can't tell me you didn't think it was awesome when Lesnar F-5ed the Big Show.
EDIT
Fave finisher?
Randy Savage's Elbow Drop.
That mother fucker had some hang time.
EDIT II
I also had a really long conversation about Andy Kaufman once with Jerry Lawler.
When they unmasked Rey Mysterio.
That was possibly the worst decision of anything ever in any sport, show, or government office.
I remember just turning off the TV in disgust and never tuning in again.
Well he has one move I saw where it like a knee or something. Is he using a submission finisher now? I hate when guys come in with a weird looking move and then end up using a submission its usually the downfall of their good moves because it means they got hurt.
The F5 looked to much like the move they gave Mark Mero, expect meros was like a firemans carry into a diamond cutter. It just looks like an easy to hit move that wouldn't put you down. Like the Jack Hammer. I have to say even the Rock Bottom suffers from that, despite Rock selling it well you have to admit its a fairly tame move.
My favorite finishers are in no particular order:
Sweet Chin Music (when micheals hits this one nicely it looks like it would knock your silly ass out, like when he hit it on benjamin with him leaping the ring it looks brutal). And its old school love for a playa.
Canadian Destroyer: Petey Williams pile driver is beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YBs3I8kDuw
3D, My favorite Tag Team maneuver, though a table for best effect.
The Vertebreaker, Shane Helms got fucking jobbed by the WWF he went from being a headliner in WcW to a retard jobber.
The Stunner, quick fast and can be hit on anyone. Micheals and HHH took this move best though HHH while being a fucking prick who never gave up the belt to anyone still sold peoples finishers like he just got annihilated.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I agree. My favorite finishers have already been the ones that can come right out of nowhere. Flashy without a big build-up.
The People's Elbow was utterly ridiculous, but I still loved seeing it. I forget the match it was used in, but my favorite People's Elbow had him sliding to a stop right before dropping it. No slow-down, just one step off the rope and he skidded to a halt on both feet the rest of the way.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
Oh man I forgot Savage, he did catch air time with that elbow, and this was at a time when moves like a suplex could be considered a finisher.
pleasepaypreacher.net
All the wrestlers thought it was ridiculous but they still were amazed at the pop for it. Like Scotty Two Hottys worm. Fans just like the obvious show boating.
I liked Austins elbow for a similar "Oh come on" type of move.
pleasepaypreacher.net