*Official* Pro-Wrestling Thread II

[jimmy101]

Yeah, massive gulfs of quality exist in the 96 stuff. The year's three saving graces were the Taker/Mankind feud, Bret/Austin & the fact that its was Sid's biggest year.

Even though I enjoyed it at the time, I can't stand going back to watch stuff from 1999-2000. It's just bollocks, the whole realism aspect of 1996 & 1997 especially was completely gone. They were still half-heartedly presenting it like a sport still, and every time a wrestler had a beef with Vince it meant something & felt like it was a shoot, almost. Eventually it just turned into the Austin/Vince show which I felt was a step down from the shark-pool situation of late '96 - '97, but of course that made the company really popular, so it was good for them in that respect. Give or take, from Survivor Series '96 until WM '98, is a quality story-arch.

 

[GIMH]

96 wasn't good. The wwf nearly went out of business.

Some great stuff but plenty of dross. 97 was awesome though

 

[Dan]

To me at least, the big thing about the Attitude Era was the lack of depth. From my knowledge at least, seems like there weren't nearly as many guys floating around the lower card being quote-unquote wasted compared to now. And a lot more guys getting significant pushes who literally had very little to them in terms of in-ring ability or character work.

 

[Mike5181]

Is it a controversial opinion to say that the attitude era has become underrated somehow? People have kind of turned on that era in the last few years for some understandable reasons but there's a lot of wilful ignorance towards some of the aspects that made watching it so compelling and exciting. I've especially seen it on CW where some of you ****s pretend it wasn't fun to watch and point to bleedingly obvious negatives (like the numerous tasteless story lines and some sub-standard in-ring quality) while ignoring almost all the good stuff.

I miss the crowds they had back then obviously, and the stars felt and looked like stars and not nerds playing dress-up (the elite).

The video quality and lighting they had back in the '90s just suited wrestling as well. The ultra HD clean look it has now just doesn't look right.

Everyone being exposed to the wrestlers opinions 24/7 now through social media is definitely a bad thing, IMO. I don't need to know every little thing that's happening behind the scenes and what Kenny, Cody, Sasha, etc. think about this and that. That's one thing I kind of like about the language barrier with New Japan. The mystique around Naito, Suzuki, etc. stays intact a bit more.

 

[GIMH]

To me at least, the big thing about the Attitude Era was the lack of depth. From my knowledge at least, seems like there weren't nearly as many guys floating around the lower card being quote-unquote wasted compared to now. And a lot more guys getting significant pushes who literally had very little to them in terms of in-ring ability or character work.

98-99 yes

00-01, absolutely not.

 

[sledger]

I miss the crowds they had back then obviously, and the stars felt and looked like stars and not nerds playing dress-up (the elite).

The video quality and lighting they had back in the '90s just suited wrestling as well. The ultra HD clean look it has now just doesn't look right.

Everyone being exposed to the wrestlers opinions 24/7 now through social media is definitely a bad thing, IMO. I don't need to know every little thing that's happening behind the scenes and what Kenny, Cody, Sasha, etc. think about this and that. That's one thing I kind of like about the language barrier with New Japan. The mystique around Naito, Suzuki, etc. stays intact a bit more.

Yeah, completely agree with this. The dirty grainy look really helped add to the illusion of kayfabe, helped take you out of reality. These days it can look a bit too much like what it actually is (i.e. a group of blokes getting in a ring and pretending to have a fight).

I find this with quite a lot of TV shows these days tbh.

 

[sledger]

98-99 yes

00-01, absolutely not.

Yeah, Dan's statement is basically true up to the point that Kurt Angle and the Radicalz appeared. After that PPV/TV cards were generally pretty decent top to bottom.

Before that though, yeah, everything apart from the main event picture was pretty dire.

 

[Dan]

Yeah, sorry, was thinking '96-'99 there. Godwins, various Al Snow characters, endless 8 Man Tags between factions based fairly heavily on racial stereotypes, Ahmed Johnson etc.

I remember when I would have been 12 or 13 going through my local video rental store and slowly working my way through all the classic WWE tapes they had (I distinctly recall that they'd evidently ordered a Royal Rumble box set, split it up, and rented them out individually). I think the 2001 Royal Rumble was the one that really stood out -- Jericho and He Who Shall Not Be Named having a fantastic ladder match that was worlds away from Flash Funk vs Leif Cassidy (talented as those two were) as an undercard match.

 

[sledger]

Haha Ahmed Johnson.

 

[Dan]

Far more importantly though:
https://twitter.com/TommyWiseau/status/1101259795900686336

This would be the greatest crossover in crossover history.

EDIT:
Further down his timeline is a Detective Pikachu edit with Wiseau lines. At this point I'm convinced we're living in a simulation, this cannot possibly be real.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

I've been watching a lot of Attitude Era stuff as I've been watching along with Bryan and Vinny for about 18 months now. My main takeaways are as follows:
- WCW is better than people remember or are willing to give credit for, though for the most part the booking is absolutely abysmal. The way they ruined Goldberg (****ing GOLDBERG ffs) is an all-time crime against the profession.
- WWF sucked ass for 90% of every show but their main event scene was scintillating. For the most part it was actually pretty well booked, except for the time that Russo was head booker. It starts to really decline once Stephanie gets more involved towards the end of the era.
- The most striking thing, especially comparing it to nowadays, is that they actually knew how to make stars back then and actively tried to. Now they don't book to make stars, they book 50/50 and all the top guys are losing clean on worldwide television like 20 times a year.
- Obviously the misogyny, homophobia and racism is much harder to put up with now that I'm not 13 years old. Had to actively skip a lot of sections of RAW.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

I don't feel that it correlates to your implication that I was suggesting that I am smarter than anyone here because that's not what I was trying to say. Personally I feel this gang-bashing is unwarranted from you guys, as I've been trying to speak to everyone in a respectful manner. For you to come in out of nowhere & hurl abuse at me is a cowardly act. This is something you've repeatedly done to other posters in the past, seemingly just for kicks (and the likes). Moreover, it disappoints me that we have a moderator who is not only condoning this unpleasant forum atmosphere, but actively encouraging it by surreptitiously "liking" abusive posts. I wasn't looking for an argument, nor will I descend into childish name-calling, but I am at least prepared to defend myself from these passive/aggressive attacks & your attempts to belittle me.

In short, no, that is not exactly what i said, but it is what you impulsively constructed from it.

You literally wrote what you wrote. It's there for all to see. Whether or not you meant it in the way you wrote it is irrelevant unless you're willing to clarify it, which it doesn't seem like you are.

The rest of this gibberish I cannot be bothered to reply to. People are not smarter to question whether the WWE would fabricate a Leukemia diagnosis in an employee, that's an asinine insinuation and somewhat offensive. It's the kind of argument thrown around by Twitter by 16yo Diva "stans" and wrestling blogs trying to become relevant to a conversation that shouldn't exist.

 

[jimmy101]

Lol so you totally side step the part where part on where I called you out for your insecure behaviour & for pulling a weak move which was typical of yourself. Whatever man, it's over. Just go back to cyber-bullying the kids on CC and stop talking to me.

 

[Agent TBY]

Not sure what the point of responding to an ad hominem attack is, really.

Anyway, it's a stupid thing to discuss because WWE is publicly traded, and if it came out that it was a work, it would be catastrophic for the company. Their stock price would vanish in an instant, they'd lose all their partnerships with cancer foundations and Make-A-Wish and the like, bleed sponsors like crazy, and effectively be done as a business. The risks far, far outweigh the rewards, especially given that Vince McMahon would be putting his control of the company on the line with no Bossman to raise the briefcase for him. You say their track record is spotty, but I can't remember a time when they have ever done anything like this. Not to mention there are reports dating several years back that Reigns had to give up his football career due to a "serious illness," only we didn't know what it was until now.

Questioning it and wondering why nobody else will only makes you sound like Kyrie Irving when he told people to "do their own research" about the Earth being flat. There's lots of stuff out there indeed.

 

[jimmy101]

Yeah, I doubt it's possible either. I don't watch the current product & had never read up on Reigns' past. I just had the thought cross my mind & decided to pop in to ask what other people thought on it. If I offended anyone then I apologise, wasn't any malice behind it on my part.

 

[Mike5181]

To be honest, it was a weird post, but I don't know why there's been such an overreaction. Bit of a non-event.

 

[andmark]

To be honest, it was a weird post, but I don't know why there's been such an overreaction. Bit of a non-event.

Yeah, come on lads, try to calm it down.

 

[sledger]

To be honest, it was a weird post, but I don't know why there's been such an overreaction. Bit of a non-event.

I think it was the honest bharani style attempt to deny saying something that was literally just said a few posts previously that drew most of the ire tbh. Which was compounded by the wah about supposedly bullying. But yeah, moving on.

 

[sledger]

Enzo's tweet about King Kong Bundy is lolbad levels of embarrassing

 

[Athlai]

R-Truth idolising John Cena and (with Carmella's earnest insistence) reluctantly issuing US open title challenges against super legitimate contenders is probably the funniest WWE thing in recent memory. Should have taken it all the way to Mania