*Official* Pro-Wrestling Thread II

[honestbharani]

The "transformation" of Scott Steiner was astounding, to say the least.

 

[GotSpin]

And the ones who have survived are in terrible shape

 

[sledger]

Yeah, Lex Luger would probably look better if he actually was dead tbh.

 

[sledger]

I watched a few old ECW ppvs not long ago as well, and Chris Candido stood out particularly even then. You just look at him and think "he's not well". Awful.

 

[GotSpin]

Most of the guys from ECW broke their bodies for that show

 

[duffer]

I watched a few old ECW ppvs not long ago as well, and Chris Candido stood out particularly even then. You just look at him and think "he's not well". Awful.

Man, I also rewatched a few and while I appreciate what the guys did in the ring, I found it really, really bad.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, some of the bumps, and chair shots, and other things are just really really nasty. Uncomfortable to watch. A couple of Mike Awesome and Tanaka matches in particular.

 

[duffer]

It just felt so......

Unnecessary tbh

 

[sledger]

Yeah, exactly. But I guess that was ECW's thing. Going above and beyond to so how "extreme" they could be.

Shame really. As the best ECW content was the stuff that wasn't actually that extreme at all.

 

[duffer]

While I used to dig seeing guys take crazy bumps, I just can't do it anymore. It seldom enhances the narrative of the match or feud.

For it's time and niche fanbase I'm sure ECW was awesome but I don't think I could sit through it again or even recommend it to anyone who wants to get into wrasslin'

 

[sledger]

Yeah same here. I think as I got older I just began to see the person behind the performer more. That and more and more info became available on the long term effects and damage this sort of stuff had on peoples' lives etc.

Re: ECW, some matches that leave out all of the weapons and really sick bumps are still well worth watching imo. Notably the ones involving Jerry Lynn (WAG) and RVD.

But yeah, stuff with Sabu, Sandman, Raven, Tanaka, Awesome, Balls etc. Best avoided.

 

[honestbharani]

I dunno if you guys saw the interviews of Bret and Shawn on how the style of wrestling changed considerably between the mid 90s and the early noughties. I think it was a YouTube clip of an interview between Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho (may have been Jericho's podcast) where Kurt says "Shawn adapted to the new style very easily". But the gist was that in the mid 90s, they used to wrestle in such a way that it looked like they were hurting each other but they took pride in the fact that the other guy was never really hurt at all, except maybe the odd hard bump for a chair shot or landing off 6 feet. But the noughties style, which I think was heavily inspired by eee-cee-dub, was to go all out on offence and let the other guy just bear the bumps.

I seriously wonder if Chris Benoit's life would have different had he just made it in the WWF in the mid 90s and worked that style. The New Gen style, really. So many lives would have been saved and different.

Keep wondering if it would have actually saved lives indirectly if Bret and Shawn just got along back then.

 

[duffer]

Have been meaning to watch those episodes but haven't got around to it. With regards to Benoit, that many flying headbutts off the top rope/steel ****ing cages would've had a profound effect. **** that's a tragic story.

Edit: episodes of their feud. Heard it was on Indian TV at the start of the lockdown?

 

[sledger]

The art of actually telling a story through a match seems to have been lost in modern day WWE. Including NXT to some extent.

The current style seems to be "get as much **** in as possible and kick out of a load of finishers in the allotted time". It's ok for the odd match each card, but you have the big dudes doing the cruiserweight **** these days (e.g. flips and dives etc.) and it just turns me off.

 

[duffer]

Yeah, the commentary team don't enhance or complement what's going on in the ring anywhere near as well as what we saw from some of the legends. I mean, they're okay but, nah.

 

[sledger]

Just over produced I think. All the guys they use have shown they have a lot of talent and charisma, but the WWE style of production (i.e. VKM screaming in their headsets constantly) just means what we get is a very generic, predictable, clichéd presentation.

 

[Bahseph]

NXT doesn’t seem to have a plot or overarching stories that extend beyond one PPV (outside of maybe Ciampa / Gargano).
AEW more or less combines the subtle long term story telling of New Japan with some of the more bombastic elements of American wrestling. The ongoing Omega/Page story has been told since the company began and its actually mostly intentional. Its hard to imagine WWE trusting it’s audience half as much.

Really great point. Look,we all love watching great wrestlers. But it's always the stories that bring you in. The Rusev comment is a great point. There was so much they could have done with him. Look at our NJPW present Ishii or Suzuki. I'd throw guys like Gable and Cesaro into that category as well.

NXT realistically is just there to try and get viewers away from AEW instead of being competitive imo. They don't tour, the production doesn't look grand enough for obvious reasons and as stated above they can't build long term because their stars get called up. Keith Lee, how do you mess up that guy??

 

[GotSpin]

Just over produced I think. All the guys they use have shown they have a lot of talent and charisma, but the WWE style of production (i.e. VKM screaming in their headsets constantly) just means what we get is a very generic, predictable, clichéd presentation.

Fully scripted promos don’t help do they?

 

[honestbharani]

They are worried about some of them going crazy, especially in a world where being PC matters when you are this famous. I understand why they do that, but then again, hiring sitcom writers is not the best way to tell wrestling stories.

 

[GotSpin]

Just went and watched some old ECW matches....they're kinda painful to watch aren't they