WWF/WWE/ECW/WCW

I've been watching some vintage professional wrestling clips and reading up on a lot of old characters. Professional wrestling was so cool back in the day! The wrestlers today are all the same, and that's pretty lame. Who remembers a guy who went by the name Mankind? He was a character played by Mick Foley. He was supposed to be schizophrenic and talk to a rat named George. He would scream and squeal and sometimes just yell "Mommy!". He even used to pull his hair out! Crazy! The Demon was cool too. He was a pro wrestler with Gene Simmons face paint. The Undertaker has always been my favorite. I've always liked Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect, and Kane as well. Who are some of your favorites?

You want to talk cool? Dig back into the ECW archives. The REAL ECW; not the sanitized version WWE tried to market.

Terry Funk, Nu Jack, Raven, Sandman, The Dudleys, Rob Van Dam, Taz...just great stuff IMO. You never knew what was going to happen except there'd be lots of violence and blood. Only Paul Heyman (the ECW owner and booker) could make a star out of "90 pound weaklings" like Mikey Whipwreck and Spike Dudley.

tohostudios wrote:

You want to talk cool? Dig back into the ECW archives. The REAL ECW; not the sanitized version WWE tried to market.

ECW was i guess for the north american market pretty revolutionary. They took the japanese hardcore wrestling and combined it with american hardcore wrestling (Abdullah the Butcher, Cactus Jack (Mick Foley) and the others)

I like Pro Wrestling, been a fan since about 1992/1993 when it became big here in Germany with early WCW and of course WWF Shows. I even attended the now infamous 1994 WCW Tour, when they had a show here in Munich, that even where Mick Foley lost his ear in the match against Vader. I prefered WCW over the WWF starting in 1994 as it looked 'more real' had better wrestlers and not clowns and stuff (Maxx Payne was a favourite, also Sting of course)
I still follow wrestling, here in Germany we have the wXw known for their 16 Carat Gold Tournament which is awesome and i also follow Chikara (American comedy wrestling mixed with japanese and mexican wrestling), Shimmer (great women's wrestling, i just love MsChif, she's a metal loving character, has Satyricon - Repined Bastard Nation as entrance theme and Cheerleader Melissa who is awesome and the complete opposite of how a regular Cheerleader with some sick moves) and Ring of Honor.

I even started to write reviews about Wrestling Shows, which takes quite hours but i enjoy it, i do mostly WWF and ECW stuff but also do Indy shows. It's great and through them i managed to attract some people to Shimmer and ROH

Randy Savage was my favourite growing up. He had the best promos imaginable. Part intense macho stuff, part laughable nonsense. And he was a terrific in-ring performer, too. At the time he was way better than any top class "superstar" wrestler not named Rude, Hennig or Steamboat. Maybe DiBiase too.

I stopped watching wrestling from about '93 to something like 2000. When I started watching again (with quite a different perspective), Chris Jericho quickly became my favourite. He's just an amazing performer and an entertainer. I have his DVD and both his books, too. And Fozzy CDs! The books are great because they are about the three things I most like - hockey, wrestling and heavy metal. Where else can you read chapters that involve Zakk Wylde, Kai Hansen, Wayne Gretzky, Teemu Selanne, Owen Hart and Lance Storm all at once?

Mick Foley is my favorite. I've had the chance to meet him a few times and sounding like an idiot each time lol. He lives not too far from me (at least one of his houses haha)

I had tons and tons of wrestling tapes. I got really big into wrestling around Wrestlemania 9. I taped every show. Even went so far as to go threw each show and make best of tapes of WWE, WCW.

When ECW came on I couldn't watch it because it was on a channel I didn't have (MSG). My friends would let me borrow their tapes. I got so hooked on ECW. My friends and I would make a trip out to the ECW arena every few months. This guy used to set up bus rides and everyone would meet up and take the bus out to Philly. He would get wrestlers to come on the ride with us too sometimes. One time we had New Jack, Spike Dudley, and John Kronus (RIP) with us. They were all pretty nice guys. I think I have the pictures somewhere. ECW was the best though. I still have those tapes and even transferred them over to DVD. I should really watch them sometime with my gf. She doesn't like wrestling but after she saw the wrestler movie and saw one of the matches, she kind of liked it with all the blood (she likes horror movies anything with blood lol). After I told her that a lot of wrestling shows do that kind of stuff she wants to go. Only thing now is they kind of tamed the shows around here now because of how violent they were actually getting.

When I was moving I put all my old VHS tapes in boxes and left them at my fathers house I think he ended up giving them all to my brothers ex gf cause she mentioned something about it and wanted to get rid of them again. There was just so much. I tried putting them onto DVD but after a while I was getting bored with it and after Vince McMahone bought WCW I was done, wrestling was over for me. WCW was gone, ECW was gone wrestling just stopped and everything became a total mess. Wrestlers were going to WWE and they would just ruin their careers. It was hard to watch so I gave up. I still play the games, but i alter them to have all the ECW wrestlers or whoever else I remember. I saw last years Wrestlemania when i bought my new TV. I had a bunch of people over but after that I haven't watched it since.

I have been watching the first 12 Wrestlemania's this week. I don't watch much new wrestling.

TNA Impact! was great until Hogan and Eric Bischoff was brought in; they got rid of the 6 sided ring, and squashed the X-Division and previous storylines.

I was enjoying the new ECW (by WWE) more than RAW and Smackdown, until they pulled the plug for their new Tough Enough series.
I didn't watch much of that but, yet again they screwed up a good thing as the best wrestler they had was Ivelisse Vélez who they pulled for an injury (they didn't do that to Jackie Gayda years ago, maybe because her boobs were bigger?)

I like SHIMMER the most these days for new wrestling. Lots of great wrestlers there I like - MsChif, the Canadian Ninjas, Tenille Tayla (who I heard was hired by WWE), Jessie McKay, Allison Danger, Hamada, Kellie Skater, etc

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

One time we had New Jack, Spike Dudley, and John Kronus (RIP) with us. They were all pretty nice guys.

New Jack a nice guy?

mlotek wrote:

TNA Impact! was great until Hogan and Eric Bischoff was brought in; they got rid of the 6 sided ring, and squashed the X-Division and previous storylines.

The biggest problem is Vince Russo. He was a Booker in the early beginning of TNA and made some stupid ideas, they fired him and later rehired him and stupid ideas like the "electrified cage match" and a lot of stupid storylines (like Samoa Joes abduction from "Them" which was never solved)
Also some of the worst TNA PPVs came before Hogan and Bischoff started their involvement. Like Victory Road 2009, Destination X 2009 or Hard Justice 2007.
I would even say, that they now produce a lot of good PPVs in terms of wrestling quality, like the great Destination X 2011, Bound for Glory 2010 or their last even Against all Odds 2012. That was also the first PPV without the involvement of Russo, who seem to have left the company. I guess Bruce Prichard (Some may remember him as Brother Love from the WWF, original manager for the Undertaker) is Head Booker now.

Wrestling reached it's pinnacle 95-97 with ECW, 5-star work in the ring & great promos/storylines. WWE Attitude-era came close with guys like Austin, Foley, DX, Owen, Rock, etc. It's all been downhill since then. I went from watching/taping every show & PPV to not watching at all. Tried to watch RAW when nothing else was on & quickly lost interest. Drizzling shits!

For what its worth, my fav wrestlers: Flair, Foley, Van Dam, Sandman, Franchise

Tag Teams: Road Warriors, Midnite Express, Steiners, Dudleys, Eliminators

I use to big a fan to..use to watch all the shows it was good back when we had local companys like WCCW...not worth watching now

ShadowAngel wrote:

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

One time we had New Jack, Spike Dudley, and John Kronus (RIP) with us. They were all pretty nice guys.

New Jack a nice guy?

Yea he was. He was actually the most talkative one and funny.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

ShadowAngel wrote:

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

One time we had New Jack, Spike Dudley, and John Kronus (RIP) with us. They were all pretty nice guys.

New Jack a nice guy?

Yea he was. He was actually the most talkative one and funny.

Jack, Dreamer, RVD, & Fonzie were great & went out of their way for anybody that wanted an autograph or just shoot the smurf poo, especially for kids. That was cool. Most of the ECW guys were cool, or at least polite. Tajiri never said much to grown ups, just smiled & nodded, but with kids he would carry on entire conversations in Japanese. Sandman was drunk(shocker!) Sabu, Raven, & Mike Awesome were d-bags.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Yea he was. He was actually the most talkative one and funny.

Funny, i guess that was before he got brain damage, tried to killed vic grimes in that infamous XPW match and all his later outbursts where he threatened to kill people, talked bad about women and behaved like a complete sfincter
I've seen some early works of him after downloading some Smoky Mountain Wrestling (The promotion from Jim Cornette, featuring also some early work of Chris Jericho and Lance Storm as Thrill Seekers, awesome, awesome stuff) and he looked a lot more sane there. Today he tries to be as crazy as the Iron Sheik and after a lot of death threats and bad mouthing other wrestling and ex-girlfriends like Terri Runnels, i think he's just bat-smurf poo insane.

CRIMSONMASK wrote:

Wrestling reached it's pinnacle 95-97

Here in Germany Wrestling became popular in 1990, reaching a peak between 1993 and 1998 (WCW took over with the nWo and became more popular than the WWF, WCW even created a PPV here in Germany in 2000)
But i think US Wrestling is like a roller-coaster, ups and downs. It was famous in the 70's thanks to Bruno Sammartino, Lou Thesz, Gorilla Monsoon and later Billy Graham. It became big with Hulk Hogan (who ripped off Billy Graham) and later with the Ultimate Warrior. Though i think from pure wrestling the NWA-JCP that later became WCW was better, in 1988-1989 they had Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Terry Funk, Stin, The Great Muta. The Great American Bash 1989 is in my oppinion still the best US-American wrestling show. Other WCW stuff like the Chi-Town Rumble or WrestleWar 1991 and 1992 are awesome too.
US wrestling struggled later with the steroid scandal and the 'shocking' realization that Wrestling is a show. Though how much show and how much reality it is, i think most casual viewers and of course the critis lack the respect of how much those wrestler throw their body in the line. Hulk Hogan had hip-surgeries, knee-surgeries, can barely walk, same goes for Ric Flair and most other US Wrestlers. One of the, if not the best, wrestlers of all time, Mitsuharu Misawa died during a match after a Belly-to-Back Suplex. It's a lot more real than people give it's credit.
I also know one of the most infamous ultraviolent wrestlers, Thumback Jack (he's from munich) who did a lot of crazy stuff and nearly killed Nick Gage in the CZW Tourname of Death 8 after a botched move. It's unbelievable what those people go through (of course you also wonder why they do it - you have to be crazy)

Wrestling today overall, in the US independent companies (Chikara, ROH, Shimmer) or in Japan (NOAH, New Japan) is a lot beeter and they still have the gimmicks and the characters. The WWE is boring, they have lame wrestlers (women wrestling is crap, Kelly Kelly sucks and though they have some great talent like Beth Phoenix and Amazing Kong, they think some fake tits are better than skills) and they botch everything. Last years big storyline with CM Punk was basically a remake of the "Summer of Punk", CM Punks storyline in ROH, while ROH made it awesome, WWE failed to copy it, raher putting the spotline on Triple H.
They have Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan), one of the best american wrestlers...and until his sudden tile win did nothing with him and Danielson was a lot better at ROH, there's nothing than a crowd singing Final Countdown (the Europe song) while he makes his entrance

My favs are Sting and Triple H

I watch wrestling but it sucks so bad right now..... painfully bad

of the newer wrestlers I like Shaemus and John Morrison when he was in the wwe

wtf??
John Morrison is out of the WWE??
he is the new Shawn Michaels and they let him go? Figures.

Yup he did not renew his contract when it expired they so underused him. I really had high hopes of him going far in the wwe

instead they gave pushes to guys like Alberto Del Rio who has in interviews flat out said he hates certain stars and would punch him in the face (meaning The Miz)

I agree bout the HBK reference

Del Rio gets pushed, because he is a pretty good Heel and he's mexican. The WWE always needs 1-2 mexican guys to reach the spanish audience and to promote themself in Mexico. With Mysterio out and Sin Cara out, Del Rio is basically the only one left - unless they finally start to push Ricardo Rodriguez as Singles Wrestler. He's actually really good and i never understood, why they waste him as Manager.

Del Rio is Mexican but he is not a good heel he sucks big waylos (spelt wrong)

Del Rio is also out at the moment but hes due back anytime along with Mysterio

I dont think Del Rio has the mic skills or the skills in the ring to be on any kind of caliber with the champs

so intstead they push ass clowns like this and underuse guys like Morrison, Shaemus, etc

I like CM having the WWE Title I wouldnt be upset if Jericho wins it at the PPV

Went on amazon and picked up the AWA and WCCW DVD's for about 6 bucks a piece. GREAT stuff, good documentaries, awesome matches.

However the WCCW says on the back "includes matches from Dingo Warrior" and there are no Dingo matches on it. Also, the AWA disc has Rik Flair's pic all over it and he isn't on it either.

Cool match that made both DVD's (at least in story) was the Jerry Lawler/ Kerry Von Erich match. Kerry had hurt himself earlier in the day (cut his arm, and if you watch the match you can see him looking at it before he takes off his robe). Lawler said match plans had to be changed because of it. He busted open the arm in the first minute of the match and there was so much blood that the match had to be stopped. This was a "unification match" from SuperClash 3 where the AWA and WCCW titles were to be combined. Then Verne stiffed Lawler on the pay so he never returned to AWA and to this day still has the belt (which he shows on the video).

I grew up on 80's and miss Prime Time Wrestling. They have it on WWE On Demand and ALL the old shows were free but last month they jacked it up to 9.95. Cool when I could watch Heenan and Gorilla for free but I don't want to pay 9.95 to watch the best duo in wrestling.

In the early 90's I was newly married and didnt have cable so I missed out on all of the WCW/WWF Monday Night Wars (which I have watched on DVD since then, along with the fall of WCW disc).

I did see WCW a few times in the 90's and was at the last match here in Panama City, FL where Shane cmae out an introduced himself as the new owner.

Also went to Mania 3 in Pontiac when I was 16 years old. I was one of the "93,000" and it was awesome. Long before the days of the internet, after the event I went back to my brother's house and called all my buddies in Tennessee to let them know Hogan slammed Andre and retained the title. But the best match of the night was Savage/Steamboat. That stole the show and had us on our feet the whole time.

I have that last WCW tv show downloaded, and it's great. The ECW-WCW Alliance Invasion angle was great but wished they did more with it and did not kill it off in 2001. Still can not understand why Vince couldn't have just given WCW (or "banished" WCW) to being on tv on Saturdays, as he bought it for a song and would be making a lot of money.

I remember that last Monday Nitro they had it cross live with Raw when Vince and Shane did that thing, and Vince starting the final Nitro was epic. What disappointed me was there was alot of guys already out and under contract and the only one who came back to wrestle was Sting that match with Flair was good.

mlotek wrote:

I have that last WCW tv show downloaded, and it's great. The ECW-WCW Alliance Invasion angle was great but wished they did more with it and did not kill it off in 2001. Still can not understand why Vince couldn't have just given WCW (or "banished" WCW) to being on tv on Saturdays, as he bought it for a song and would be making a lot of money.

The Alliance Storyline was completely botched, it was horribly booked and Vince was too greedy to spend some money and let the bookers create a good storyline. ECW and WCW were made to be the losers and booked that way. Vince didn't wanted to shell out money for those Wrestlers who were under contract with AOL/Time Warner, the big stars like Goldberg, Nash, Hogan, Hall. So instead he only got most of the WCW Midcarders and nobody cared for them. Then they changed DDP to a creepy Stalker in a very bad Undertaker Storyline, instead of pushing him as "WCW's People's Champion". How great would've been "People's Champion vs. People's Champion"? DDP vs. The Rock at Wrestlemania X7. That would've been something.
And instead of building up the Stables, giving ECW/WCW a show on the Smackdown spot and get a ton of money of a storyline that could've run for 2 years, they finished it off in about 6 months.

There's a great DVD from Kayfabe Memories, called Guest Booker. Jim Cornette books the complete Invasion Storyline from the beginning up for about 1 1/2 year and doesn't even use the nWo, Sting (He was never interested in working for the WWE and refuses it to this day) or Goldberg until halfway through. But his ideas were awesome and 10 times better than what the WWF/E created.

The big problem with the WWE is Vince McMahon. He has a too big ego and only like what he created. He never really liked to push wrestlers he lured away from other companies. Like what he did in the late 80's with Dusty Rhodes: He was a big fan favourite in the NWA-Territory. He came to the WWF and was stuck with a stupid comedy gimmick (polka-dot outfit, Sapphire as a Manager). Same happened to half of the 4 Horsemen, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard who became the Brainbusters, a Midcard Tag-Team. The Rockers never got a Tag-Team Title despite being over huge with the crowd. The only one who avoided this was Hulk Hogan as he was just way too popular (Despite what the WWE may historically claim, the Hulkamania Gimmick was born in the AWA) and brought the WWF a ton of money

This thread makes me want to lay the smack down on your roody poo candy ass.

Andy wrote:

This thread makes me want to lay the smack down on your roody poo candy ass.

Your role-Know it!
Your mouth-Shut it!
My ass-Kiss it!

gives all the HoM jabronies the People's Eyebrow


I miss the days when wrestling was good

Addy wrote:

Del Rio is Mexican but he is not a good heel he sucks big waylos (spelt wrong) Del Rio is also out at the moment but hes due back anytime along with Mysterio I dont think Del Rio has the mic skills or the skills in the ring to be on any kind of caliber with the champs so intstead they push ass clowns like this and underuse guys like Morrison, Shaemus, etc I like CM having the WWE Title I wouldnt be upset if Jericho wins it at the PPV

Del Rio is not very well liked. He also hates The Miz, another guy I always felt was overrated though he has gotten better (needs a character change though).

Also don't worry about Jericho, he is supposed to take another hiatus after Wrestlemania. He's only here to further CM Punk's career.

Read a story today about them halting Ezikel Jackson's push. Ridiculous, how can someone who lost to David Otunga twice not being pushed?

Speaking of character changes, doesn't look like that will ever happen to Cena. I always respected his work ethic and charity work but I'm getting sick and tired of his character.

I've been watching WWE/F since the debut of the Undertaker. I also followed WCW from the time Vader wore his helmet til "The Finger Poke Of Doom" (never liking Hogan I never watched WCW again until it was bought by WWE). I also watched TNA for a short time but lost track of it. Then I found out Hogan took control and never watched it again. I had a short time where I didn't watch WWE (during the debut and rise of Brock Lesnar's career) because I was in the Navy. However, even then I kept up with some here and there. It has gotten worse over the years but after 20 years, leaving it behind is a lost cause. Every year I watch Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania and have never missed them since 2003.

I loved it most in my early years (I'm one of the only people who prefer the pre-Attitude Era) and had fantasies of becoming a pro wrestler. I wanted to beef up when I was in the Navy (after all I'd have access to free gym equipment) but instead of beefing up, I puffed up (though I really want to try to loose some weight). That and the fact my best friend Erik (who was to go into Wrestling with me) got diagnosed with a heart condition. My dream of pro wrestling by that time was dead and sadly, several years later Erik died too. Now the only dream I have left is to front a metal/hard rock band and I'm not sure if that will ever happen either.

Interesting note, my wrestling character was going to be a bodyguard type guy with sunglasses, ponytail, and a suit and his name was going to be Mr. Black. he would be a heel then eventually turn face with the first name Dallas. As in Dallas Black (I would like to use that name as a band someday).

Andy wrote:

This thread makes me want to lay the smack down on your roody poo candy ass.

Than you better start drinking your milk, take your vitamins and say your prayers, cause watcha gonna do when i run wild on you

The thing that made wrestling were those awesome promos and one-liners, same as the 80's action movies, everything was over the top and so awesome