Random Wrestling Thoughts (Part 2)

briany

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a degenerative neurological condition associated with repeated blows to the head and resulting concussions. I note that Mick Foley has pledged to donate his brain to the study of this disease given that he's received many, many blows to the head over his career.

The really odd thing about Mick Foley to me, however, is despite all the punishment he's received over the years, few veteran wrestlers appear to have more of their marbles than him. His body's a wreck, yes, but his mind seems to be working quite well, going on to be a successful author, doing movies, continuing roles with WWE, and even forays into standup comedy. So, he certainly doesn't appear to have experienced some of the horror stories associated with CTE like dramatic personality changes, hallucinations, loss of temper, psychosis etc.

The brain is the least understood organ of the human body, so it's speculation to say this, but there must be a genetic susceptibility to CTE as well.

leggo

We also don’t know the true effects of CTE in people’s day to day lives because they’re not going to let us see them. You say that about Foley, and I hope and would love if it was the case, but then go back and watch some of his last GM run with him basically reading off his hand and messing up every second line (to the point they had to make that the storyline).

NFL fans who’ve followed it post-CTE being discovered know how scary it can be. There’s the player who killed himself in the Kansas City Chiefs’ training facility, the ex-player who shot himself in the chest so his brain could be studied, and so many other horror stories. But they’re playing out behind closed doors and we only seem to learn of them when they reach their tragic end. Benoit is a great example we can all relate to: think of how shocked you were when you heard what had happened after years of all us ever hearing about his personal life being how much he doted on his family. We don’t have a clue really when it comes down to it.

bot43

In this apocalyptic time a few friends and I did a watch along of Summer Slam 2002. What a card.

The Angle Rey opener was incredible.

I also watched a Benoit (balls) match for the first time since he did what he did

Fun evening overall.

Omackeral

Loughc wrote: »

What’s the longest running wrestling storyline can anyone remember seeing?

Jerry Lawler and his hatred for Bret, stu and Helen hart.

And Bret and Owen fued are two that come to mind.

Taz and Sabu didn't touch each other for over a year during the build to their match. Made it all the more tantalizing. They'd do spots like pull apart brawls just as they were within touching distance or the lights would go out as they're about to go at it. Anyway, loved that. They always seemed to be at each other.

Wuff Wuff

Loughc wrote: »

What’s the longest running wrestling storyline can anyone remember seeing?

Jerry Lawler and his hatred for Bret, stu and Helen hart.

And Bret and Owen fued are two that come to mind.

Baron Corbin and Roman Reigns

PTH2009

Wuff Wuff wrote: »

Baron Corbin and Roman Reigns

Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn

J. Marston

leggo wrote: »

We also don’t know the true effects of CTE in people’s day to day lives because they’re not going to let us see them. You say that about Foley, and I hope and would love if it was the case, but then go back and watch some of his last GM run with him basically reading off his hand and messing up every second line (to the point they had to make that the storyline).

NFL fans who’ve followed it post-CTE being discovered know how scary it can be. There’s the player who killed himself in the Kansas City Chiefs’ training facility, the ex-player who shot himself in the chest so his brain could be studied, and so many other horror stories. But they’re playing out behind closed doors and we only seem to learn of them when they reach their tragic end. Benoit is a great example we can all relate to: think of how shocked you were when you heard what had happened after years of all us ever hearing about his personal life being how much he doted on his family. We don’t have a clue really when it comes down to it.

Mike Adamle has it too and is now suffering from dementia. Makes things like "Jeff Harvey" a little sadder with hindsight.

Sirsok

Watching old Raws I forgot about their afflliation with chef boyarde...I like it...I kinda miss it

Gangrel..as was nearly every character was super over

Omackeral

J. Marston wrote: »

Mike Adamle has it too and is now suffering from dementia. Makes things like "Jeff Harvey" a little sadder with hindsight.

They took that bit out of Bothchamania's intro because of that which was decent.

brianblaze

Omackeral wrote: »

They took that bit out of Bothchamania's intro because of that which was decent.

Speaking of that intro video, this gets me every time

Sirsok

Would wrestling benefit from their titles being defended every few months like boxing and UFC.

I was watching a show recently and nearly every match was a title match , none of them meant anything at all and that extends to world titles.

Including NXT there's 14 titles up for grabs all defended lost and won every month, making none of them matter.

So say cut it down to one world title for men's and womens.
3 brand exclusive titles so smackdown gets cruiserweight and intercontinental raw gets 24/7 and US each gets a tag team title.

Would allow for proper storytelling, storylines for female talent that doesn't involve the title.

Elevate the prestige of all titles and allow for different main events,which may create new stars.

Titles are props right now, I mean they were always technically props but atleast they meant something.

kksaints

Sirsok wrote: »

Would wrestling benefit from their titles being defended every few months like boxing and UFC.

I was watching a show recently and nearly every match was a title match , none of them meant anything at all and that extends to world titles.

Including NXT there's 14 titles up for grabs all defended lost and won every month, making none of them matter.

So say cut it down to one world title for men's and womens.
3 brand exclusive titles so smackdown gets cruiserweight and intercontinental raw gets 24/7 and US each gets a tag team title.

Would allow for proper storytelling, storylines for female talent that doesn't involve the title.

Elevate the prestige of all titles and allow for different main events,which may create new stars.

Titles are props right now, I mean they were always technically props but atleast they meant something.

I used to think this viewpoint might work until Brock Lesnar's title reign a few years ago when not having title matches at PPVs made a lot of the main events a complete waste of time and didn't really bring back prestige to the title at all. There is something to be said for longer title reigns but I think you need matches for belts at every PPV at least.

Sirsok

I thought Leaner reign as great to be honest. Important to note though he wasn't on tv either really. The world champion would be present and wrestling but not defending the title.

The storytelling of the other titles weren't great. For example Cena reign as US champion , during that he could of main eventing ppvs v the likes Owens, Cruiserweight title defended no.1 contender matches and actual rivalries not involving the title could occur. Next Month a heated tag title fued could main event or woman's match. Then 3 months after last defence you have built up the contender engaged them in a long fued and have the match.

Would cut out the need for screwy finishes, transitional champions , less chance of a storyline or character being hot shotted like Ryback and The Fiend.

PTH2009

at this PC no crowd matches find the screaming and shouting annoying and distracting

Tony Nese vs Cameron Grimes was full of grunting/ahhh

leggo

kksaints wrote: »

I used to think this viewpoint might work until Brock Lesnar's title reign a few years ago when not having title matches at PPVs made a lot of the main events a complete waste of time and didn't really bring back prestige to the title at all. There is something to be said for longer title reigns but I think you need matches for belts at every PPV at least.

The problem there is that you’ve been conditioned to think belts should be defended every PPV, so when they’re not it feels ‘missing’. People don’t feel this way about UFC because it’s just not possible to do it that way and hasn’t been normalised, so if you get two title fights on one card it feels like a big deal. 3 title fights and you’re talking a WrestleMania-level show.

I’ve been saying for ages they should do it this way: programmes peaking at different times so even when a wrestler isn’t on a PPV it doesn’t feel like they’re being left off. Lucha Underground were great for this because they only had one ‘big’ show as the series finale, so every show effectively had one main event with a different feud peaking, then the undercard was the different feuds continuing at their own pace. I think it’d do wonders for current WWE programming tbh. PPVs should be built around 2-3 big matches and the rest can be filled out by less important title matches, tag matches etc continuing feuds. NJPW also do that quite well and you never feel like you’re missing out, although if the main event is light then it can make the entire card seem missable.

brianblaze

briany

Looking at some of the ridiculous gimmicks the IWC have gotten behind over the years, I think they're exactly as out of touch as they accuse Vince McMahon of being, not to mention every single one of them being infinitely less successful as a promoter.

oneilla

Loughc wrote: »

What’s the longest running wrestling storyline can anyone remember seeing?

Jerry Lawler and his hatred for Bret, stu and Helen hart.

And Bret and Owen fued are two that come to mind.

Ric Flair and Sting had a match in 1988 at Clash of Champions and also had the last match on Nitro in 2001.

The Undertaker & Kane story started in 1997, they last wrestled on PPV in 2010 and were a tag team in one of them overseas supershow specials a while back.

Blue_Dabadee

Maybe it just me but I think 2008 is WWE best year ever. You had great storylines throughout the year such as Ric Flair retirement, Undertaker-Edge and Michaels-Jericho and all of big 4 PPVs that year were excellent.

I am little bias as well since it was a big year for Jeff Hardy who got me into wrestling.

Reganio 2

Loughc wrote: »

What’s the longest running wrestling storyline can anyone remember seeing?

Jerry Lawler and his hatred for Bret, stu and Helen hart.

And Bret and Owen fued are two that come to mind.

Miz and Daniel Bryan pops into my head. That comes up every now and again and it’s been going on since the first episode of NXT which was what 2009? Madness

Even if our superior over lord jay likes to say Sheamus and Daniel Bryan is the longest feud on OSW ��

Hammer of the Clods

I'm not a fan of Becky Lynch's promos. Clearly I'm in a tiny minority, and I do think she's a brilliant pro wrestler, I just never buy her promos.

Omackeral

Hammer of the Clods wrote: »

I'm not a fan of Becky Lynch's promos. Clearly I'm in a tiny minority, and I do think she's a brilliant pro wrestler, I just never buy her promos.

I can't stand them either. I have to fast forward. The little huff and puff cadence she has and the hardman pout she does that makes her like like a bold child.

leggo

You don’t have to enjoy them, that’s subjective and an entirely valid POV, but she is indisputably excellent at promos.

J. Marston

Look at the "promos" from the women on Smackdown last Friday and compare them to Becky's. It's night and day.

You don't stay as popular as she is for this long (especially with fans as fickle as they are these days) by doing bad promos. She's clearly good at them.

CastorTroy

It's mad that she's been Raw champion for nearly a year.

Was thinking today listening to Heyman, who has defended the title the most in a single reign in the past 20 years? Like we hear about ones being the longest reigning champion but they may have only had a handful of title matches in that time.
And I wouldn't count the hardcore or 24/7 title

martyos121

CastorTroy wrote: »

It's mad that she's been Raw champion for nearly a year.

Was thinking today listening to Heyman, who has defended the title the most in a single reign in the past 20 years? Like we hear about ones being the longest reigning champion but they may have only had a handful of title matches in that time.
And I wouldn't count the hardcore or 24/7 title

Haven’t done the research but I’m sure CM Punk is right up there, I recall him defending his title a fair bit during his lengthy WWE title run.

If it isn’t him, I’d wager it’s Cena’s US title run where he defended it nearly every week for some months.

HanFiredFirst

I cannot stand Becky's promos and switch off as soon as she starts talking.

Riddle101

It feels surreal to see The Undertaker on twitter now. I keep on expecting it to be a fake account or something but he has wrestler following him.

briany

I've often wondered - given Paul Bearer was actually a licensed mortician, do you think any families of a deceased wrestling fan ever asked him to perform his duties in character? Similarly for the Undertaker, I wonder if anybody has ever offered him a big payday just to show up to a funeral in the gear, say a short eulogy and drive the hearse to the graveyard or something?

gerrybbadd

briany wrote: »

I've often wondered - given Paul Bearer was actually a licensed mortician, do you think any families of a deceased wrestling fan ever asked him to perform his duties in character? Similarly for the Undertaker, I wonder if anybody has ever offered him a big payday just to show up to a funeral in the gear, say a short eulogy and drive the hearse to the graveyard or something?

I might be imagining this, but i think I heard it mentioned before that Bearer returned to Mortician work during one of his hiatus' from WWF back in the day