WWF/WWE/ECW/WCW

jstate wrote:

The fact the guy is standing on his own is pretty incredible. All things considered (the punishment and lifestyle) he looks pretty good.

I think it's actually shocking. He's only 48 years old (which always surprises me, he made his debut in WCCW in 1984 when he was just 19!) but since being the Undertaker worked a very light schedule with a very light in-ring product (not having to sell things and only his finisher being somewhat dangerous for his knees, but his Tombstone was always easy, he just fell on his knees, compared to other wrestlers who jumped down, like Roddy Piper did). He was never a high-flyer, he took off a lot of time over the years (like after the Royal Rumble 1994 until his return at SummerSlam 1994) and as far as it goes, he was never a heavy drug user.
If anything, from all the main event stars, he had it pretty easy, he was never the big face of the company, having to compete at every house show and event. He never did drugs like Rick Rude, Jake Roberts, Shawn Michaels or Mr. Perfect did and his ultra-safe in ring style never put him into any risk.


As for Mabel: It came out of nowhere, i read that he lost a lot of weight over the past year. Maybe that was a problem. Before that he was really huge. Even more so after he left the WWE. Saw a JCP Legends event where he couldn't even take a fall over the rope in a Battle Royal because he was so big.

He looks rough and Ive read so many things saying hes barely in health to compete in the ring, he pretty much makes a few appearances a year all around Wrestlemania time he always has 1 match and he always wins. Its to the point where its no longer mysterious because you know whoever is fighting the taker at Wrestlemania is gonna lose.

And if he agreed to have his streak broken, it is not gonna be by someone like Brock Lesnar a guy he has issues with

If anyone is worthy to be the next Undertaker like character (mind games, psychology, etc), it's this guy. If there anyone who's worthy of ending Taker's streak, he's also the one. I swear to God, WWE better not drop the ball with him.

Undertaker said in an interview if he could pick anyone to the end the streak, it would be Kane.  I don't think the streak will end, though.

Sword Of The Heretic wrote:

If anyone is worthy to be the next Undertaker like character (mind games, psychology, etc), it's this guy. If there anyone who's worthy of ending Taker's streak, he's also the one. I swear to God, WWE better not drop the ball with him.

I didn't like the Bray Wyatt character at first but it's really grown on me.  Did you know he's a) the grandson of Blackjack Mulligan, b) the son of Mike Rotunda aka Irwin R. Shyster and c) the nephew of Barry Windham?  That's some pretty good wrestling genes right there.

When I first saw him using that gimmick down in FCW, I knew he had caught lightning in a bottle. His mind games remind me so much of the Undertaker, but he seems to have a great gift of ring psychology, up there with Jake the Snake.

I honestly believe that had Spivey not been injured back in the 90's, we would have gotten this sooner with Waylon Mercy.

At the time my fandom in wrestling was fading fast but damn did that Waylon Mercy character peak my interest .  I was a big Dan Spivey and Cape Fear fan.  "Lives are goin be in my hands".  Dan Spivey is a guy that should have been huge.  Seemed like once he moved away from being a Barry Windham clone he was too banged up to make it count.  Too bad from day one he wasn't presented as an ass-kicker.  I'll always contend the SkyScrapers team without all the injuries was a license to print money.  Very few things I ever saw live in wrestling matched their entrance (second to only the Road Warriors).  According to Dynamite Kid's book Spivey was one of those people if it weren't for bad luck they'd have none at all.

Spivey also had a rep as a tough guy in the locker room. There's a video on youtube with him and Mean Mark (Undertaker) battling the Road Warriors where he just went insane and beat the holy crap out of Hawk with a chair, so hard that he actually bent it. He said years later that he had gotten tired of Hawk not selling anything, and was also pissed because they had tried to make an example out of Mark, trying to walk all over him.

Anybody else get the WWE Network? I signed up on launch day and I've been enjoying it very much. I just wish more of the older material was available. So far, they've been very slow to upload content - ie there are no Nitros and very limited ECW Tv episodes. I know they will be adding it soon, but I'm impatient. Sadly, when watching the old WCW PPVs, I have realized even those trainwrecks are far more entertaining than today's product.

I checked out that youtube of Spivey beating Hawk with the chair. I don't ever recall Hawk rolling out of the ring to get away from someone. Even scarier is the look on Spivey's face as he's doing it.

I thought about signing up since it is such a great deal. But I don't have any interest in today's stuff (nothing against it, it's just passed me by) but the older stuff would be nice to have for my cardio workouts. I have a lot on tape and dvd already but whole years of World Class, Florida, or AWA would get me to instantly order. Without all of that available I think I'll hold out till they make those libraries a part of the deal. I'm assuming they will eventually put everything they have up?

Yeah I'm waiting until all the old ECW TV shows become available.  Those were great.

jstate wrote:

I checked out that youtube of Spivey beating Hawk with the chair.  I don't ever recall Hawk rolling out of the ring to get away from someone.  Even scarier is the look on Spivey's face as he's doing it.  

I thought about signing up since it is such a great deal.  But I don't have any interest in today's stuff (nothing against it, it's just passed me by) but the older stuff would be nice to have for my cardio workouts.  I have a lot on tape and dvd already but whole years of World Class, Florida, or AWA would get me to instantly order.  Without all of that available I think I'll hold out till they make those libraries a part of the deal.  I'm assuming they will eventually put everything they have up?  

I don't watch the new product either, but the old stuff is why I signed up. It's been a nice walk down memory lane.

They plan to have their entire video library online in the near future. So far they have some ECW tv shows from 1993-94, a few WCCW shows and several old school WWF matches from 1975-1991. All of the ECW, WCW and WWF pay per views are available. A couple of the Legends of Wrestling roundtables are available and those are phenomenal.

I just watched that Spivey/Road Warriors match and Spivey is clearly pissed. He lights Hawk up!

I started to get interested a little again after I heard CM Punk quit earlier in 2014.
Looked at some newer WWE dvd's. Pretty much the same old stuff.
CM Punk matches though, were the type of stuff that MADE the company in the past, like the Hardys/ Edge and Christian/ Chris Jericho.
Of course, WWE brass would see them all as "mid-carders", but they are what usually attracted non-wrestling diehard people like me to watch, such as when Rob Van Dam was there, but they were bungholes and buried him, which lost my support,and made me a very, very casual WWE viewer ever since.
If they couldn't see a gigantic superstar in him as big as whoever they had, WWE is obviously stupid.

Witchfinder wrote:

jstate wrote:

I checked out that youtube of Spivey beating Hawk with the chair.  I don't ever recall Hawk rolling out of the ring to get away from someone.  Even scarier is the look on Spivey's face as he's doing it.  

I thought about signing up since it is such a great deal.  But I don't have any interest in today's stuff (nothing against it, it's just passed me by) but the older stuff would be nice to have for my cardio workouts.  I have a lot on tape and dvd already but whole years of World Class, Florida, or AWA would get me to instantly order.  Without all of that available I think I'll hold out till they make those libraries a part of the deal.  I'm assuming they will eventually put everything they have up?  

I don't watch the new product either, but the old stuff is why I signed up.  It's been a nice walk down memory lane.  

They plan to have their entire video library online in the near future.  So far they have some ECW tv shows from 1993-94, a few WCCW shows and several old school WWF matches from 1975-1991.  All of the ECW, WCW and WWF pay per views are available.  A couple of the Legends of Wrestling roundtables are available and those are phenomenal.  

I just watched that Spivey/Road Warriors match and Spivey is clearly pissed.  He lights Hawk up!

Do you know if this includes the entire ECW run on the TNN channel ?

mlotek wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

jstate wrote:

I checked out that youtube of Spivey beating Hawk with the chair.  I don't ever recall Hawk rolling out of the ring to get away from someone.  Even scarier is the look on Spivey's face as he's doing it.  

I thought about signing up since it is such a great deal.  But I don't have any interest in today's stuff (nothing against it, it's just passed me by) but the older stuff would be nice to have for my cardio workouts.  I have a lot on tape and dvd already but whole years of World Class, Florida, or AWA would get me to instantly order.  Without all of that available I think I'll hold out till they make those libraries a part of the deal.  I'm assuming they will eventually put everything they have up?  

I don't watch the new product either, but the old stuff is why I signed up.  It's been a nice walk down memory lane.  

They plan to have their entire video library online in the near future.  So far they have some ECW tv shows from 1993-94, a few WCCW shows and several old school WWF matches from 1975-1991.  All of the ECW, WCW and WWF pay per views are available.  A couple of the Legends of Wrestling roundtables are available and those are phenomenal.  

I just watched that Spivey/Road Warriors match and Spivey is clearly pissed.  He lights Hawk up!

Do you know if this includes the entire ECW run on the TNN channel ?

It's not on there yet, but it's supposed to be sometime in the future.

Leatherface wrote:

Undertaker said in an interview if he could pick anyone to the end the streak, it would be Kane.  I don't think the streak will end, though.

Agreed I doubt it will ever end, and if anyone were to end it , it would be someone he has respect for. Ive heard Kane's name mentioned, Ive also heard Triple H, and Shawn Michaels but its not going to happen, he should just retire, and get into the HOF

As much as ECW got me back into wrestling in 1996, I find it hasn't aged as well in re-watching.  Some of it is the old "so innovative that it then gets copied to death and no longer seems as fresh as it was".  But some of it is knowing what became of a lot of the guys.  I used to love the MIke Awesome/Masato Tanaka stuff, now with all the chair shots and crazy table spots it just seems kinda tragic.  Even with guys that went on and made some decent money it's tough to watch.  Give me Bob Backlund working over Don Muraco with fifteen minutes of headlocks and I'll feel much better.  I certainly can enjoy it more in good conscience anyway.  That's just me though - no judgement on someone who thinks otherwise.

Does the network censor blood, or have those annoying blurs over the old logos?  Or is everything as it aired?

I was going through some old stuff and happened to watch WrestleWar 91.  It's a really great show overall, but the Dan Spivey/Lex Lugar match is incredible.  I used to think my favorite stuff with Lex was the Windham, Steamboat, Rich, and Pillman 1989 stuff.  That match may top them all.  Also fun from the show was Jim Ross losing it when Stan Hansen starts dangerously winging chairs at ringside.  "They don't pay me enough for THIS".  Wrestling really needs to have more Stan Hansen type guys.

jstate wrote:

As much as ECW got me back into wrestling in 1996, I find it hasn't aged as well in re-watching.  Some of it is the old "so innovative that it then gets copied to death and no longer seems as fresh as it was".  But some of it is knowing what became of a lot of the guys.  I used to love the MIke Awesome/Masato Tanaka stuff, now with all the chair shots and crazy table spots it just seems kinda tragic.  Even with guys that went on and made some decent money it's tough to watch.  Give me Bob Backlund working over Don Muraco with fifteen minutes of headlocks and I'll feel much better.  I certainly can enjoy it more in good conscience anyway.  That's just me though - no judgement on someone who thinks otherwise.

Does the network censor blood, or have those annoying blurs over the old logos?  Or is everything as it aired?

I was going through some old stuff and happened to watch WrestleWar 91.  It's a really great show overall, but the Dan Spivey/Lex Lugar match is incredible.  I used to think my favorite stuff with Lex was the Windham, Steamboat, Rich, and Pillman 1989 stuff.  That match may top them all.  Also fun from the show was Jim Ross losing it when Stan Hansen starts dangerously winging chairs at ringside.  "They don't pay me enough for THIS".  Wrestling really needs to have more Stan Hansen type guys.

Everything I have watched so far does not have the logos blurred, the announcers say WWF and blood is not censored. The only change I have noticed is they overdub the entrance music for the ECW wrestlers with generic music. I assume because they didn't want to pay licensing fees to Deep Purple, Pantera, etc...

Good to hear they don't blur the logos. Some of the WWE DVDs I have do that and it's so annoying because every single ringpost had the WWF logo on it and that blurring every time someone is in the corner is very distracting.

What is the WWE Network's stance regarding matches with Chris Benoit?

Sword Of The Heretic wrote:

What is the WWE Network's stance regarding matches with Chris Benoit?

His matches are not edited out.  They do have this warning attached to them though:

"The following program is presented in its original form. It may contain some content that does not reflect WWE's corporate views and may not be suitable for all viewers. WWE characters are fictitious and do not reflect the personal lives of the actors portraying them. Viewer discretion is advised."

"You can block access to this program and others like it using the Parental Control feature in your WWE Network account settings."

Also, if you try to search for Benoit using the search function on the network, you get no results.

I recently watched WWE's 3 dvd set (2011) The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro,
and naturally, they had to have The Four Horsemen there, and it included the Sept 14, 1998 segment where Ric Flair Returns to The Four Horsemen, and they reform when all dressed up in tuxedos , and Flair yells at Eric Bischoff  a little bit, calls him a name I won't repeat here.
That segment has Chris Benoit standing there beside James J. Dillon ,Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Dean Malenko , Steve "Mongo" McMichael but if it was edited, as they do not show his entrance to the ring, his name is not mentioned and he does not speak.

WWE is burnt out in my opinion. I used to love watching WWE and ECW growing up with my grandfather, but unless you're watching from early 2000's and back, there really isn't anything except disappointing performances.(though CM Punk, I have much respect for.)
Just seems like the storylines are just repeated and the talent is atrocious, I really do hope it improves in the future, but doubt it...

Watching WWE (2013) THE BEST OF IN YOUR HOUSE 3 dvd set.
Some of the matches they include I have seen on worn out VHS tapes with various titles that were released by Coliseum Video in Canada.
A LOT of it, I have not before, not on any previous WWE dvd comps.
Ticked off they have "BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVES", but somebody will have uploaded them I guess.
http://www.wwe.com/wweshop/dvd/the-best-of-in-your-house-dvdblu-ray-contents-26113432

I can't believe Undertaker lost @ WM30, especially to Brock Lesnar whom I like but he shoulda lost to Cesaro or somebody who deserved it if he was gonna lose.