Pro Wrestling Thread

Discussion in 'Joker’s Funhouse (Off Topic)' started by Rockhound665, Sep 20, 2018.

  1. Rockhound665 Steadfast Player

    He was definitely responsible for the Mae Young thing. And get this. WWE Network has old episodes of All Star Wrestling. Talk about bringing back my childhood. I never missed this nor Championship Wrestling back in the days before I had cable. Used to watch All Star Wrestling on channel 17 WPHL and on channel 48 was Championship Wrestling. Oddly enough these were filmed in the same arena.
  2. FoolsFire Devoted Player

    About WWE taping on Sunday to broadcast on Monday while WCW would be live...

    Once on the same night you saw Rick Rude on WWE, turn the channel to WCW, wait a minute, and Rick Rude appeared to say, "Oh what a difference a day makes."

    Worst WCW move...



    ...and this wasn't suppose to be funny.
  3. willflynne 10000 Post Club


    Oh geez.

    What's great is watching the WWE roundtable discussion featuring Dusty Rhodes talking about all the behind-the-scenes stuff that contributed to that.


    Roundtable starts at about the 1:30 mark.
  4. Fawkes2574 Dedicated Player

    To be honest, I haven't been watching wrestling in the last couple of years. Lost interest in the crap they've been showing today, and not caring what the fans want. Shoving Reigns down our throats, trying to turn him into the face of the company when he wasn't ready. But I grew up watching wrestling, back from the Hogan/Warrior/Savage era. You couldn't tell me back then that it was fake. I was one of those believers that stood firm on it being real.
  5. DarkVisor 15000 Post Club

    The action in the ring may have been real (even though choreographed and rehearsed before hand, to reduce serious injuries, because sometimes **** happens and a wrestler could still get hurt), butt the action outside of ring was most times fake
    A story mum likes to tell was at a wrestling match in Africa in the 50's, the heel came out, walking towards the ring, riling up the fans, and this little old granny knitting in the front row stuck one of her needles in him :D
  6. Rockhound665 Steadfast Player

    Actually, they used to be live on a Monday then do the taping on Tuesday. As for poor Fred Ottman, what had happened was that they had done a runthrough and it went smoothly then they put up another wall and one of the stage hands put a 2x4 across the bottom to steady it. Ottman(Tugboat/Typhoon for those unfamiliar with his real name), wasn't aware and we have the memorable moment we have today. The funny thing is, the voice you hear isn't even his. It's Ole Anderson. But what WCW was thinking by covering a stormtrooper helmet in glitter? They even changed the gimmick making Shockmaster a bumbling oaf but as usual with most WCW gimmicks, it didn't go over. But that wasn't the worst WCW move. This was, as discussed above:



    Funny thing. WWF had their own Fingerpoke of Doom moment when HBK was forced to defend his European championship against HHH but that worked because it was DX being DX at the time doing anything to defy Slaughter who was commissioner at the time.
  7. DarkVisor 15000 Post Club

    To be honest, what the hael did anyone truly expect? Making two members of nWo 'fight' each other
    Best part, was the end:- "The man, the myth, the... what the hell is he doing here?" :D
  8. Rockhound665 Steadfast Player

    At the time the nWo was split into 2 factions: Wolfpack & Hollywood. This was when the nWo thing was played out and was getting ridiculous. You had nWo Wolfpack, nWo Hollywood, the Latino World Order, and everyone and their brother was in the nWo until pretty much the entire WCW roster was on it. Even Dusty frigging Rhodes. The Fingerpoke of Doom set up the reunification of the 2 factions. But the Monday Night Wars turned toward the WWF because of this.
  9. DarkVisor 15000 Post Club

    Can actually remember when WCW was in a tiny little room, before they moved into a full arena. Not sure if it was just a one off occasion butt can definitely remember that tiny room, barely big enough to fit the ring

    Can someone explain to me why they pronounce 'Asuka' as 'Oscar' instead of 'A-sue-car'? Same with that Japanese guy, the way they pronounce his name doesn't seem to fit with the spelling

    And someone please, bury that miserable piece of **** Miz in a New Jersey landfill, he's an embarrassment to the human species!!
  10. DarkVisor 15000 Post Club

    Didn't he start out as a third of a Tag Team? Can vaguely remember him being part of a team back when he was a rookie...

    Oh, and remembered the name of the Japanese guy: Shinsplint Nakedmoira (or at least, that's how they pronounce his name...)
  11. Miss Adora Loyal Player

    there are a lot of factors involved. For one back in the 80's-early 2000's WWE was a privately own company. They became public around 2006 ish (maybe before that), then the whole Chris Benoit situation happen, so lots of moves were cut out, chair shots to the heads can't be done. They hire soap opera writers who are not wrestling fans to write stories. The promos are scripted, the booking is terrible, Vince is out of touch. He thinks he can control who the fans cheer for. Wait forgot can't call them fans, they are the WWE Universe (face palm). Not called wrestling any more, it's sports Entertainment. The wrestlers are not called Wrestlers. they are Super Stars.

    The matches doesn't tell stories any more, it's nothing but spotfest after spotfest. Matches design to make faces look real good and heels look real bad. Nothing like the attitude era where anything can happen. Faces have a 99% of winning, the heals have about 1% and always looking weak.

    Also think social media is a blame too, remember growing up believing these guys who they are on t.v. 24-7. They use to have a mystery to them, now every wrestler is pretty much on social media. Hard to hate and boo someone who may play a jerk on t.v. but probably one of the nices guy in rl.
    • Like x 1
  12. Miss Adora Loyal Player



    I also blame NWO for the demise of WCW. They just didn't know when to end it. I got so tired of hearing the NWO black and white music and NWO Wolf Pack music. Everyone and their grandmother was part of it exception of a few. Stink was suppose to end NWO and should of let him but instead joined the WOLF PACK. I watch some old footage of Stink Brett hart, and the fued look great, they were tearing each other apart, then when it came to match, just like every other match, NWO interfered and killed what would be a great fued. So I blame NWO!
  13. FoolsFire Devoted Player


    Only part of the company became public. That's kinda the dirty little secret they don't talk about. When they started it was only like 10%. When they started to go downhill (sorry don't know actual dates) they lost 15 years worth of value in one year.

    Also, let's get some of Vince's terminology crap out of the way...At one time almost all states had a boxing commission which also covered wrestling. So by law you were required to have extra insurance, an ambulance at an event, etc., etc..

    The term "Sports Entertainment" was created so the WWE (WWWF/WWF) wrestlers would be considered more like actors than athletes. This way Vince wouldn't save a ton of money.

    The term "Super Star" was then coined because Vince forgot one thing. If they are actors and they are doing 'stunts' then shouldn't they should be considered stuntmen. And stuntmen have a union. In fact, again in many states it's required you have a certified stuntman if your performance is part of a television production.

    Oh, and one final little tidbit. One state, I believe it was Oregon, still required pro wrestlers to do drug tests. Just like boxers. This was the one state which for years never had a WWE show. According to Vince it wasn't 'financially feasible' to promote there. The law got changed and WWE's first show broke box-office records for the state. The state representative who spearheaded the law change went to work for WWE right after the law passed. Go figure.
  14. Rockhound665 Steadfast Player

    I agree that the death of kayfabe killed a lot of wrestling and Russo's version of wrestling started that. During the Attitude Era, they killed kayfabe quite a bit. I remember the angle where the Ministry of Darkness kidnapped Stephanie McMahon(pre-boob job) and how Shamrock saved her from whatever satanic wedding they were going to do with her and he came out and called the Undertaker out by his real name(Mark Calloway). Then there was the time HHH with X-Pac showed the MSG Incident which was a really big kayfabe killer not to mention that that incident cost HHH his original push which went to Austin instead which without that we would have never had Austin 3:16 which is kind of ironic. Social media was in it's infancy back then when all you had were chat rooms on AOL. The original shot to kayfabe was when the Iron Sheik and Jim Duggan were busted together for drug possession during a time they were in a feud together. Another thing killing today's product is that there are no more characters. There are no more Undertaker vs Kane or HHH vs Mankind or Cactus Jack or Dude Love(3 faces of Foley) now it's John Smith vs Joe Smith.
    • Like x 1
  15. willflynne 10000 Post Club


    Thing is, I think kayfabe would have gone out sooner or later, especially with the rise of social media and how connected the world has become.

    Any sort of performance, especially those on the more fantastical side, depends heavily on the willing suspension of disbelief by the audience. If that suspension of disbelief gets broken, the performance loses any appeal and is likely to get criticized because the audience got taken out of the illusion. The Jackie Gayda match is a prime example of that, with the fans turning on the performers almost immediately after the mistakes started.

    The more connected and informed we become, the greater the chances of the illusion being broken with something like wrestling. There's just no way of keeping the same levels of secrecy they had back in the pre-internet era. Fans want to know what goes on behind the curtain, and trying to maintain those old levels of secrecy could have ended up driving away fans.

    As for characters, I think it's a matter of what kinds of characters they portray has changed. Taking The Miz as an example, if you watch any of the footage of Mike Mizanin from his days on The Real World, you'll see something of a good-natured goofball, nothing like his persona as The Miz. Granted, that Real World time in and of itself may have been a performance, but comparing the two means he's putting on a show with one of them. Wrestlers are now having to craft something of a larger than life character out of who or what they already are, and I'd trace that back to Steve Austin breaking loose from the whole "Ringmaster" character they tried to give him and becoming Stone Cold Steve Austin.
  16. willflynne 10000 Post Club

    Going a bit more off of wrestlers having to go with larger-than-life versions of themselves for their characters, I'm thinking one of the reasons for the backlash against Roman Reigns could be his own core personality.

    Reigns was the celebrity game picker on ESPN's College Game Day on the weekend going into the most recent PPV, and overall he made a good showing. He was personable, friendly, had fun on show and played well off the crowd. But even though he was there with the championship belt he just didn't seem to project much of a large presence on the show, much less hints at having much of a large presence to begin with. And unfortunately that's something fans can and will see through, even if the performer is doing everything in their power to compensate for that.

    With Reigns it comes across as the company trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Reigns wouldn't be there if he couldn't perform in the ring, but there's just something missing to complete the package, and through no fault of his own it could just be who he is as a person.
  17. FoolsFire Devoted Player


    In the day I found this so epic...



    This is because wrestlers got tired of Vince having them sign over the rights to their gimmicks. It's much easier, and better, for the wrestlers to just use their real names. If they get dropped or leave the WWE then they still have a marketable cred.
  18. Rockhound665 Steadfast Player

    Vince didn't need to have them sign over their gimmicks because his crew came up with those gimmicks. Vince and his writers came up with Mankind, Undertaker, Kane, HHH, HBK, Goldust, Million Dollar Man, etc. Very few came to the WWF with their own gimmick. So the gimmicks were his to begin with. Remember when Austin came in, he was The Ringmaster. He came up with Stone Cold and sold the idea to Vince. Cactus didn't come to be in the WWF until Foley was well established. Dude Love was a goof and they ran with it.
  19. DarkVisor 15000 Post Club

    That whole Undertaker-HHH 'End of an Era' rubbish reminded me of the terrible 'Hogan vs Warrior' mess with WCW (hype up the old rivalry for months, only for Warrior for lose in such an awful manner and then have him return to Nowhere afterwards)
    Completely not surprised with the Super ShowDown result

    Similar thing with the other 'rivalries':
    Flair turned her back on Lynch and stole her shot, and totally living up her Dear Old Dad's name and reputation
    The Miz is a miserable sack of horse-nuts who, for what ever reason, became jealous of The Yes Man and is tricking other idiots to do his dirty work because he's a talentless 'actor' (not even an athlete)
    And don't get me started on the Joe Styles rubbish
  20. DarkVisor 15000 Post Club

    Can Triple Aitch be even more of a bad winner? It was a "No DQ" match, and Smichaels interfered, twice, and he is saying that the BOD betrayed him and broke their word?
    It was supposed to be the last time they ever met (possibly because Taker was retiring or something), butt because he got ******** after how the BoD reacted to Smichaels' interference he brought back the degenerates (with only two members left alive) and calling out the Brothers for a rematch? A rematch for what? Triple Aitch won! Why does he want a rematch? And, if he does get his way (look what he is sleeping with: the spawn of the Boss, of course he will :rolleyes: ) then Taker would be going against his word

    On to another bit: why did the Bella's turn on Rousy? Isn't one of them married to that Bryan guy? The guy Miserable says is too honest to do what is needed to win? How is he going to react to his dear wife's actions?