WWF/WWE/ECW/WCW

jstate wrote:

Ah, competition was good for wrestling.

Which is why wrestling sucks as much as it does. Ring Of Honor has the ability to outshine WWE but doesn't have the money to compete with it. TNA has the money to compete but not the ability. WWE has no real competition so they don't even try.

Went ahead and took the plunge to get the Royal Rumble. Watching these Rumbles makes me realize that not matter what happens the 30 Man event always delivers. Even when you know who's going to win. Everyone who follows this thread knows I can't stand Hogan. Despite knowing he won the 1990 Royal Rumble I still enjoyed watching it.

Just a little thinking I'm doing watching early 90s WWF. I think it's crap that Big Boss Man never held the intercontinental belt. I remember him being one of the top babyface mid-carders of the time and watching the old events confirms that. For crying out loud, the Mountie held the mid-card title! Bossman was not a main eventer, not by any means. However, he had a very popular gimmick, cut above average & intense promos, and moved as fast as a man half his size (especially once he lost about 50 lbs.). Just like it's a crime Mr. Perfect or Roddy Piper never held a wold title it's a shame that Bossman never got a good mid-card title*. Of course it's ancient histoy and maybe I'm biased (Bossman was my favorite at the time). Maybe he will one day be in the WWE Hall Of Fame (hey, Koko B. Ware got in and was used as more of a jobber than Bossman ever was).

*The hardcore title does not count

I'd even say the Bossman could have even been made world champ in his feud with Hogan. Those cage matches just may be my favorite Hogan matchups. And his Starcade match against Ronnie Garvin is an all-time favorite for certain.

I loved the Royal Rumble. Wrestlemania (after 3) almost always left me underwhelmed. Summerslam was always entertaining. While Survivor Series never did much for me. The Rumble always delivered as far as I was concerned.

I'm anxious to see what happens with Punk and Rock. Rock should NOT (but a good chance he will) win the title. They've put too much into CM Punk's title reign for him to loose to a part-timer. It will do nothing to help the current product in the long run. Yeah, this is a fake sport and titles are nothing but props, however the fun in watching wrestling is getting lost in the fantasy. In the fantasy, you want to give people a reason to invest in the current roster. How can they do so it the best they have can't beat people who's best days are behind them? I could care less about the outcome of every other match, but I'm hoping they do the right thing and have Punk retain (maybe help from a returning Brock Lesnar or interfering Brad Maddox-almost a 0% chance they give Punk a clean win).

I'm hoping though, that whatever the outcome is, the Rock makes a better showing than he did with Cena at Wrestlemania. Half-way through their match, Rock looked like me after walking up several flight of stairs. For crying out loud, The Undertaker who can only wrestle one match a year had better conditioning in his match and it lasted longer than Cena vs. Rock.

However, the main reason I'm getting the PPV (the main reason anybody gets RR) is the 30 man Rumble as it always delivers. Plus, I've seen almost every Rumble since 2003 so it's also a tradition for me.

Wow! Talk about how the mighty have fallen. Tammy Lynn Sytch, otherwise known as Sunny (the hottest female to ever grace a WWE/F ring) has been arrested for the 6th time since September of last year:

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/267169-wwe-hall-of-famer-tammy-qsunnyq-sytch-arrested-for-the-sixth-time

Rock won and I'm pissed off. I knew it was going to happen, but that doesn't change the fact that I think it's bullshite. This just might be the tipping point for me where I stop watching WWE. Cena always wins (he won the Rumble-second hint I had that Rock would win), everybody else is just fodder for him and part-timers. Why should I invest my time in the talent they have, if they won't. This wouldn't be so bad if they at least had this before the Rumbe. Despite Cena winning it, I alway enjoy that part of this PPV no matter what happens. But of course, The Rock had to be the main event (this was my first hint that Rock would win-that the Rumble was not the main event) but his win would have been more tolerable if the Rumble was last. If the best talent they have can't be handled properly, I might as well just watch old stuff and stop wasting my time with the current product. Overall, it was a nice PPV and even The Rock vs. Punk was a great match (until the end). However, the pampering of Cena and the lack of investment in the other talent has left a bad taste in my mouth.

The worst part? Rock won with the People's Elbow. The move that Mick Foley called the stupidest move in wrestling is all it took after a 40 minute match for Rock to beat Punk after getting put through a table. Say what you will about Cena, but he's never won a belt from the Five Knuckel Shuffle.

Of course the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community) is in an uproar. Many of them swearing they will never watch again. I will NOT go there as I've said it before only to watch again the next day. In 1999 when Hogan won the WCW belt after the infamous "Finger Poke Of Doom", I was incensed and swore that was it, I will never watch WCW again. I even turned the TV off and threw the remote down. The next Monday I was watching Nitro (though for the last time as I went off to boot camp several days later-and as soon as I could was watching wrestling again). However, I found some great quotes:

Quote :

The Rock/Punk match wasn't even that good. Punk did most of the work and anyone who watched that match will agree. He had the upper hand and did alot of cool moves while Rock did the minimal. Ending the match to just have it restart was awful and having the Rock win with the peoples elbow was also bad. A rock bottom finisher would have been much better. Seriously, the peoples elbow is equivalent to Hogan's leg drop, it's not believable.

Quote :

I feel bad for Punk..imagine how he must feel losing his beloved title to a guy that's barely there and to a guy that's only had 2 matches in 10 years...

Quote :

The bigger issue is that the guy that only had 3 matches in 10 years (Cena/Rock v. Awesome Truth) just came in and in one years time beat the companies #1 Face and #1 Heel. What does that say about the current roster? The two top guys can't beat some actor fresh off a movie set.

I'm over it now. Still hate what happened but it's over. Helps to watch some old school (1993 Royal Rumble). Some funny observations:

Papa Shango (The Godfather) lasted longer than his Godfather character did in this year's Royal Rumble (maybe not beating Santino's record-who didn't last very long in this one either-but certainly tied with The Warlord).

Gorilla kept talking in awe about Bob Backlund being 43 and competing in the RR. However, Flair (who was #3 and won the year before) who is in the same Rumble was one year older than Bob.

Heenan, who was always funny behind the table, is a bit less funny than he was in the previous one (last night I kept LOLing at Heenan's one liners-now I'm merely chuckleing).

Koko B. Ware in his parachute pants (his team with Owen Hart, High Energy wore neon green ones) looked like he was big enough to be in Men On A Mission and I almost thought he was Mo. Of course MoM wasn't there at this time (it would be the next year's Rumble).

I can't watch Headshrinker Fatu without seeing Rikishi. I keep expecting to see a stink face (not that I want to, I hated seeing that move).

Before he was Papa Shango or The Godfather he was the Soultaker in the Memphis territory when I lived there. He was the latest in a series of big guys Jimmy Hart brought in to try to defeat Jerry Lawler. I thought that was his best gimmick; just a bigass dude who couldn't do any wrestling moves but beat the crap out of people

tohostudios wrote:

Before he was Papa Shango or The Godfather he was the Soultaker in the Memphis territory when I lived there. He was the latest in a series of big guys Jimmy Hart brought in to try to defeat Jerry Lawler. I thought that was his best gimmick; just a bigass dude who couldn't do any wrestling moves but beat the crap out of people

There was always room for guys like that. I normally like the technical guys but I've liked my fair share of big brawling guys like Andre The Giant, Earthquake (who in reality was a really good wrestler but never showed that in the ring), The Undertaker, Jeep Swenson, Bam Bam Bigelow, Big Boss Man, One Man Gang, etc.

My main observation about Shango was that his most laughed at character (considered to be one of the worst gimmicks in wrestling history) had better success in the Rumble than his most popular character who returned for one night only to enter and exit the ring in the same breath.

Yeah, as long as the "big stiff" type heels have a face guy who can carry them, I've always found those matches to be the most interesting.

It's the classic "David and Goliath" setup.

tohostudios wrote:

Yeah, as long as the "big stiff" type heels have a face guy who can carry them, I've always found those matches to be the most interesting.

It's the classic "David and Goliath" setup.

Like Vader vs. Sting. Those matches are some of the best, they had great chemistry together.

DallasBlack wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Yeah, as long as the "big stiff" type heels have a face guy who can carry them, I've always found those matches to be the most interesting.

It's the classic "David and Goliath" setup.

Like Vader vs. Sting. Those matches are some of the best, they had great chemistry together.

Yep. Paradoxically I also really enjoy the Vader/Cactus Jack matches too and there's a case where neither guy is a great wrestler but Foley is such a great "bumper" that the matches are still awesome.

OK, I'm watching RAW tonight and I'm just not buying The Shield's gimmick anymore.

There is no freakin' way those two weaklings plus Roman Reigns could take out Cena, and a fresh Shamus and Ryback. I call BS!

tohostudios wrote:

Sword Of The Heretic wrote:

Double

tohostudios wrote:

OK, I'm watching RAW tonight and I'm just not buying The Shield's gimmick anymore.

There is no freakin' way those two weaklings plus Roman Reigns could take out Cena, and a fresh Shamus and Ryback. I call BS!

Well, if the Rock can end a 435 day title run with a stupid People's Elbow, then anything is possible.

I actually kinda dug the Papa Shango character. Part of that may have stemmed from the fact we had a local wrestler who did a similiar character called Rasta The Voodooman. It was so dumb, it became great in it's dumbness. I also liked Shango because it had a darkness to it when he would light the people on fire and stuff.

jstate wrote:

I actually kinda dug the Papa Shango character. Part of that may have stemmed from the fact we had a local wrestler who did a similiar character called Rasta The Voodooman. It was so dumb, it became great in it's dumbness. I also liked Shango because it had a darkness to it when he would light the people on fire and stuff.

I did too. It was a big tatooed guy with a skull painted on his face. What 13 year old metalhead wouldn't dig that guy. When he attacked Hogan, it was just icing on the cake. Interestingly, when he re-debuted as Kama I realized at once he and Shango was the same guy (Wright's tatoos are very distinctive).

jstate wrote:

I actually kinda dug the Papa Shango character. Part of that may have stemmed from the fact we had a local wrestler who did a similiar character called Rasta The Voodooman. It was so dumb, it became great in it's dumbness. I also liked Shango because it had a darkness to it when he would light the people on fire and stuff.

I remember Rasta The Voodooman. Didn't he wrestle with Global Wrestling Federation? Or was that some other guy rippiing off the gimmick?

Despite my rant earlier. I am watching Raw now. I am however, pretty much through with PPVs. I can be pissed off at something I see for free, but I don't want to be pissed off at something I have to pay $50 for.

Just found out that the NXT guy Bo Dallas is actually the son of Mike Rotunda/IRS/Michael Wallstreet. Had no idea. So many second/third generation wrestlers on the current roster that do not go by their real names or the last names of their father's characters (cause they can't be copywrited):

Michael McGullicutty (Joe Hennig)
Husky Harris/Bray Wyatt (Windham Rotunda)
Roman Reigns (Leati Anoa'i)
The USO brothers (the Fatu brothers)
Alberto Del Rio (Dos Caras Jr.)