Random Wrestling Thoughts (Part 2)

Wuff Wuff · 24-03-2020 7:40pm

Itssoeasy wrote: »

That gif reminds me of watching the end of the streak live and I can't remember a crowd gettting that silent so fast. And then the fact they didn't play brocks music straight away was great. There was two gasps I assume because it took a couple of seconds for the whole crowd to realise what has happened. I hated the fact the streak ended but the way it was handled when it did was really well done.

I was working nights and the fella I was in with was that shocked by it he forgot to submit the payroll hours for that week haha

Lithium93_ · 24-03-2020 7:59pm

Itssoeasy wrote: »

https://twitter.com/rusevbul/status/1242488793665376256?s=21

A random thought is that Russev is a stand up guy. Kind of confirms what you hear about him being well liked.

Rusev's making Braun Strowman look like an even bigger dickhead for his recent comments.

Itssoeasy · 24-03-2020 8:14pm

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Rusev's making Braun Strowman look like an even bigger dickhead for his recent comments.

Yeah Braun Strowman wasn't looking great before this and even Jim cornette called strowman a " big fat ****" when he heard what strowman had said.

briany · 24-03-2020 9:11pm

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Yeah Braun Strowman wasn't looking great before this and even Jim cornette called strowman a " big fat ****" when he heard what strowman had said.

Braun Strowman - if that is his real name - picked the wrong time to grandstand.

Itssoeasy · 24-03-2020 9:20pm

briany wrote: »

Braun Strowman - if that is his real name - picked the wrong time to grandstand.

I mean at best it comes off as tone deaf given the times we are in and at worst he comes across as someone who never has to struggle as an indie wrestler and you'd hope his attitude isn't widespread in the performance centre.

briany · 24-03-2020 9:46pm

Itssoeasy wrote: »

I mean at best it comes off as tone deaf given the times we are in and at worst he comes across as someone who never has to struggle as an indie wrestler and you'd hope his attitude isn't widespread in the performance centre.

It's hard to know exactly what they're being told in the PC. I would imagine they have a work ethic drilled into them, and I can only imagine that they do indeed work quite hard. But I agree with Cornette - it's not the same thing as paying wrestling dues. You're never going to get the next Stone Cold Steve Austin from a PC trainee. Greats like him have many years of experience to draw on from many different places, working with many different people.

leggo · 24-03-2020 9:53pm

In normal times, I get why WWE guys have this attitude. They have to spend their entire lives taking unprovoked digs from people who’d probably give up all they have and trade jobs and bank balances with them in a heartbeat if they could, being called sellouts by people who’d drop the high ground and sell out themselves at their first opportunity. So, as arrogant and childish as it looks to bystanders like us, they’re gonna play that card ten times out of ten because it gets to the root of the issue.

But the timing and the reaction it was going to always get...ah Braun...

Itssoeasy · 24-03-2020 10:24pm

leggo wrote: »

In normal times, I get why WWE guys have this attitude. They have to spend their entire lives taking unprovoked digs from people who’d probably give up all they have and trade jobs and bank balances with them in a heartbeat if they could, being called sellouts by people who’d drop the high ground and sell out themselves at their first opportunity. So, as arrogant and childish as it looks to bystanders like us, they’re gonna play that card ten times out of ten because it gets to the root of the issue.

But the timing and the reaction it was going to always get...ah Braun...

Yes it's the timing that makes it worse. It's clear that whether you were a wrestler on the indies before or you are fresh into wrestling it's not a picnic and if you can't succeed in the best system of its kind then WWE probably isn't for you. Even Jim cornette while calling Braun strowman out was at pains to point out he wasn't saying they didn't work hard.

The only trait where the PC only trained wrestlers was shown during the charlotte flair and Kairi mess at the end of last year. Becky and asuka were able to shift gears.

johnnyryan89 · 24-03-2020 10:57pm

Itssoeasy wrote: »

I mean at best it comes off as tone deaf given the times we are in and at worst he comes across as someone who never has to struggle as an indie wrestler and you'd hope his attitude isn't widespread in the performance centre.

While he never had to struggle as an indie wrestler he did compete in strongman, so I'm sure he knows how tough it can be at the lower levels which makes his timing about this silly.

beakerjoe · 26-03-2020 11:29pm

WWE has too much talent. They've signed so many people just to ensure AEW and NJPW dont have them. Most of the talent they have is used poorly and suffers as a result.

So much talent going to waste its mindbiggling.

Agent Coulson · 26-03-2020 11:33pm

There could be cost cutting talent cuts coming after this crisis ends especially if it last a few months.

CastorTroy · 27-03-2020 12:14am

Watching the Benoit documentary made me wonder again what happened Malenko. He joined the same time as Eddie and Chris yet didn't seem to stick at it for long before moving backstage.
I'm not too familiar with his work, but my understanding is he was an early version of the likes of Bryan and Gulak? So probably would've fared better today.

PTH2009 · 27-03-2020 4:02am

Kind of odd how Drake Maverick (as Rockstar spud) won a TNA UK bootcamp once upon a time and was impressive enough but hes in WWE just making up the numbers with a semi decent programme with the 24/7 title and being GM of a 205 live who nobodys gives a toss about

Quite a lot of names in NXT UK were part of this

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNA_British_Boot_Camp

CastorTroy · 27-03-2020 9:12am

He's not even GM anymore. Can't remember the last time I saw him on it

Agent Coulson · 27-03-2020 9:22am

Himself and R-Truth have disappeared since the gave up on the 24/7 title being a comedy belt.

Also one of the best things they had in the previous 6 months or so.

CastorTroy · 27-03-2020 11:19am

Truth got the title back now. And I think in the current climate, this would be the perfect time to show the more lighthearted side and take advantage of the title being defended out in the open

CastorTroy · 27-03-2020 11:24am

Seeing the bit on Smackdown about Kofimania, made me realise I had completely forgotten about that even though it was only last year

riffmongous · 27-03-2020 4:31pm

It would be the perfect opportunity to book a full PPV based around the Hardcore title being defended backstage and the other annoying backstage brawls/matches, basically all the Crash Holly style segments rolled together and presented as one continuous event, interspersed with an Iron Circle or two :pac: Cancel every other title shot and have every who is willing to wrestle at the moment take part in it, sure it'd be a mess, but better than empty stadium wrestling

28-03-2020 5:45am

riffmongous wrote: »

It would be the perfect opportunity to book a full PPV based around the Hardcore title being defended backstage and the other annoying backstage brawls/matches, basically all the Crash Holly style segments rolled together and presented as one continuous event, interspersed with an Iron Circle or two :pac: Cancel every other title shot and have every who is willing to wrestle at the moment take part in it, sure it'd be a mess, but better than empty stadium wrestling

Would be humourous to just randomly, without actually acknowledging it at all, have a match on, and in the background, in the 'audience', have some wrestlers randomly hammering the sh/te out of each other for the belt.

Or have them run down the ramp, around the ring and through the arena to escape each other.

Ala Kane/Raven/Big Show at WrestleMania X7.

J. Marston · 28-03-2020 12:06pm

For anyone who has watched Tiger King...

Itssoeasy · 28-03-2020 7:16pm

Just watching raws from may 2002 and Austin hasn't taken his ball and went home yet but a lumberjack from may 14th between booker t and Austin was a sloppy mess. In a weird way him leaving got us the match at wrestlemania 19 with the rock, because maybe it's hindsight not being as forgiving as it sometimes is but Austin may not have made it to mania the next year if he hadn't taken time off. He looks bad in the ring here.

J. Marston · 29-03-2020 12:41am

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-Slx8XFBBx/?igshid=lui35b6o5n7t

Rock talking about he and Austin's Mania feuds.

riffmongous · 29-03-2020 1:52am

Just rewatching old Smackdowns, is Carlito's theme the most annoying loop ever? It just restarts with the cold start every 30 seconds

leggo · 29-03-2020 1:59am

riffmongous wrote: »

Just rewatching old Smackdowns, is Carlito's theme the most annoying loop ever? It just restarts with the cold start every 30 seconds

That’s every custom wrestling theme song to be fair: recognisable, unique intro, catchy hook designed to be an earworm, repeat. A lot don’t even have a chorus and are just the same loop played out for 3 minutes.

Riddle101 · 29-03-2020 4:27am

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Just watching raws from may 2002 and Austin hasn't taken his ball and went home yet but a lumberjack from may 14th between booker t and Austin was a sloppy mess. In a weird way him leaving got us the match at wrestlemania 19 with the rock, because maybe it's hindsight not being as forgiving as it sometimes is but Austin may not have made it to mania the next year if he hadn't taken time off. He looks bad in the ring here.

Didn't Austin have a heart attack at Wrestlemania 19 as well. Strong chance he might not have wrestled at the show if it were decided he couldn't wrestle for health reasons.

And then of course the rumors would have come out that Austin faked a heart attack because he didn't want to job to The Rock or something

snoopboggybog · 29-03-2020 4:54am

Riddle101 wrote: »

Didn't Austin have a heart attack at Wrestlemania 19 as well. Strong chance he might not have wrestled at the show if it were decided he couldn't wrestle for health reasons.

And then of course the rumors would have come out that Austin faked a heart attack because he didn't want to job to The Rock or something

Too many energy drinks, coffee and exhaustion apparently. Wasn't drinking water for months. His heart was beating out of his chest.

They had to rehydrate him at the hospital with IV bags and he was good to go. Nothing too serious.

riffmongous · 29-03-2020 4:19pm

leggo wrote: »

That’s every custom wrestling theme song to be fair: recognisable, unique intro, catchy hook designed to be an earworm, repeat. A lot don’t even have a chorus and are just the same loop played out for 3 minutes.

No this one is much worse,they include the musicless 'i spit in the face..' part in the repeat, which breaks up the catchy hook, listen 4:36 - 5:10. I know what you meant for most themes but this was just lazy

https://youtu.be/wG3Cd0cp19A

Omackeral · 29-03-2020 7:16pm

Gonna be running a Tag Team tournament outside these parts on the games forum tonight if anyone is interested. All PW members welcome!

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2058065835/1/#post112992231

Loughc · 29-03-2020 9:51pm

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.

briany · 29-03-2020 10:05pm

riffmongous wrote: »

Just rewatching old Smackdowns, is Carlito's theme the most annoying loop ever? It just restarts with the cold start every 30 seconds

The worst thing about that music was that it didn't make Carlito cool, ironically. Great wrestling themes get you pumped up and/or tell you the guy coming to the ring is a badass. Carlito's Calypso-tinged theme was never going to do that.

briany · 29-03-2020 10:38pm

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 · 29-03-2020 10:57pm

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 · 29-03-2020 11:03pm

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 · 29-03-2020 11:20pm

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 · 29-03-2020 11:32pm

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 · 30-03-2020 12:05am

Wuff Wuff wrote: »

Baron Corbin and Roman Reigns

Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn

J. Marston · 30-03-2020 12:12am

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 · 30-03-2020 12:21am

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 · 30-03-2020 12:21am

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 · 30-03-2020 11:58am

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 · 30-03-2020 1:19pm

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 · 30-03-2020 1:25pm

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 · 30-03-2020 2:03pm

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 · 30-03-2020 3:38pm

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 · 30-03-2020 4:25pm

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 · 30-03-2020 4:33pm

briany · 31-03-2020 1:10am

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 · 31-03-2020 4:14am

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 · 31-03-2020 6:51am

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 · 31-03-2020 7:49am

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 &#55357;&#56834;

Random Wrestling Thoughts (Part 2)

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