WWF/WWE/ECW/WCW

The wrestling in NXT is pretty cool, and they actually have good, interesting angles, but the production is pretty bad. Like missing big impact moves, random shots of the wrong things, having the springboard accidentally visible when Sin Cara enters the ring.

... and while the crowd is hot, they're a little too self-aware. The chants and stuff are mostly to entertain themselves, and since they're "smarks", it can get a little annoying and embarrassing. It's like a metal concert full of elitist guitar nerds who sit with their hands crossed during popular songs, and only get excited during solos and surprising inclusions to the set list. I mean, I'm like that too when I listen to music, but I wouldn't want to be in a show full of people like me.

Lari wrote:

The wrestling in NXT is pretty cool, and they actually have good, interesting angles, but the production is pretty bad. Like missing big impact moves, random shots of the wrong things, having the springboard accidentally visible when Sin Cara enters the ring.

... and while the crowd is hot, they're a little too self-aware. The chants and stuff are mostly to entertain themselves, and since they're "smarks", it can get a little annoying and embarrassing. It's like a metal concert full of elitist guitar nerds who sit with their hands crossed during popular songs, and only get excited during solos and surprising inclusions to the set list. I mean, I'm like that too when I listen to music, but I wouldn't want to be in a show full of people like me.

I remember back in the day when kayfabe was king. Going to wrestling shows was a lot of fun. Rarely any talking and a lot of wrestling. The first house show I went to was around 1985 or 86 at Joe Louis Arena on Dec 26 in Detroit. I could not BELIEVE the heat Honky Tonk Man got that night. It was awesome. We had ringside seats and I had an American flag t-shirt on that night. Iron Sheik saw it and pointed at me and said "USA sucks!" and spit and the crowd went absolutely nuts.

The only time you would have them in the ring with a mic was if it was Heenan or someone like Rick Rude. Never were there any extended interview or talk segments.

I miss those days. I haven't been to a house show in ages but I suspect they are probably like the old house shows and maybe not a lot of people on the mic.

But back in those days there really weren't a lot of smarks and the ONLY way you could get the latest news on everything was PW Illustrated. I used to love that magazine.

I was watching the WWE Network and while watching old Saturday Night's Main Events from the vault, came across an amazing montage. For the benefit of those who don't have WWE Network, here it is on youtube (though why would you not have WWE Network now - it's free for February):



Brought back memories from the wrestling-watching days of my childhood.

I've been watching a lot of nostalgia wrestling ever since I subscribed in November. I went through the whole Monday Night Wars series - then a lot of 2001 Invasion storyline, and a bunch of WCW PPV's I never got to see before. They really do have an amazing catalogue available at network.wwe.com

Lari wrote:

The wrestling in NXT is pretty cool, and they actually have good, interesting angles, but the production is pretty bad. Like missing big impact moves, random shots of the wrong things, having the springboard accidentally visible when Sin Cara enters the ring.

... and while the crowd is hot, they're a little too self-aware. The chants and stuff are mostly to entertain themselves, and since they're "smarks", it can get a little annoying and embarrassing. It's like a metal concert full of elitist guitar nerds who sit with their hands crossed during popular songs, and only get excited during solos and surprising inclusions to the set list. I mean, I'm like that too when I listen to music, but I wouldn't want to be in a show full of people like me.

NXT is a developmental territory and not a prime time wrestling program, hence it will have botched moves and sometimes shoddy camera work.  I don't mind any of that because the entertainment value of their product is off the charts compared to WWE's garbage.  If you think the NXT crowd are smarks, try attending a Ring of Honor taping sometime.

Watching Raw and Dusty Rhodes trying to get his sons on the same page.

Holy crap! How much weight has Dusty lost???? Is he sick (i.e. like with cancer)? He has to have lost at least 100 pounds.

tohostudios wrote:

Watching Raw and Dusty Rhodes trying to get his sons on the same page.

Holy crap!  How much weight has Dusty lost???? Is he sick (i.e. like with cancer)?  He has to have lost at least 100 pounds.

Nope. Dusty has been losing weight over the last couple of years due to better eating habits.

From 411mania:

As previously reported, WWE has teased that the next WWE Hall of Fame inductees will be announced on Raw this Monday, and it will likely be a tag team.

In addition, PWInsider has a new report on inductees for the Class of 2015. Based on the report, the team being teased by WWE is The Bushwhackers, Butch Miller and Luke Williams.

According to the report, Kevin Nash is “confirmed” to be inducted next month, and he will be inducted by Shawn Michaels. The report goes on to note that plans to induct Larry Zbszyko have apparently been postponed once the final decisions for 2015 were made.

HAHAHAHA!!!

That segment with Jon Stewart on RAW was priceless. That guy could be a manager if he wanted to be; great promo skills.

Samoa Joe has left TNA recently and apparently HHH wants him in WWE. He is expected to be signed and to be put on NXT. With this rumor, a poster on Wrestlezone photo shopped this funny picture with a possible "WWE" name (you know their penchant for changing established wrestler's names so they can own them):

DallasBlack wrote:

Samoa Joe has left TNA recently and apparently HHH wants him in WWE. He is expected to be signed and to be put on NXT. With this rumor, a poster on Wrestlezone photo shopped this funny picture with a possible "WWE" name (you know their penchant for changing established wrestler's names so they can own them):

I never thought WWE would sign Samoa Joe because he doesn't fit their "body type". The guy can move, talk and is strong as an ox but he's flabby-looking which I thought automatically eliminates anybody except a super heavyweight. Maybe they'll put him under a mask and make him wear polka dot trunks.

tohostudios wrote:

I never thought WWE would sign Samoa Joe because he doesn't fit their "body type".  The guy can move, talk and is strong as an ox but he's flabby-looking which I thought automatically eliminates anybody except a super heavyweight.  Maybe they'll put him under a mask and make him wear polka dot trunks.

Oh make no mistake, Vince has no interest in him whatsoever. It's only HHH that likes Joe.

Which shows how stupid Vince can be sometimes.

Joe could be a superstar good guy or heel, however they chose to use him. Forget what his body looks like and watch him in the ring.

tohostudios wrote:

Which shows how stupid Vince can be sometimes.

Joe could be a superstar good guy or heel, however they chose to use him.  Forget what his body looks like and watch him in the ring.

Exactly! The first time I saw him in the ring, I was amazed at his athletic ability. However, Vince likes them big regardless of any other factor. That's why we have Roman Reigns headlining WM even though he's clearly not ready (some would argue that he never will be).

Man, Paul Heyman is THE master of promos!

That one on Raw last week followed by this one tonight.  The guy is the best talker in the business IMO.

Larry is IN!

tohostudios wrote:

Which shows how stupid Vince can be sometimes.

Joe could be a superstar good guy or heel, however they chose to use him.  Forget what his body looks like and watch him in the ring.

I found out this weekend that my sister's fiance (my fellow wrestling fanatic) doesn't like Joe. He thinks he's fat, lazy, and untalented.


This surprised me because I usually agree with him on in-ring talent. Funny thing opinions.

DallasBlack wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I never thought WWE would sign Samoa Joe because he doesn't fit their "body type".  The guy can move, talk and is strong as an ox but he's flabby-looking which I thought automatically eliminates anybody except a super heavyweight.  Maybe they'll put him under a mask and make him wear polka dot trunks.

Oh make no mistake, Vince has no interest in him whatsoever. It's only HHH that likes Joe.

The first time I seen Samoa Joe talk on TNA (on Spike TV around 2005 or 2006), it took me months to figure out why this guy sounded familiar.
His voice and mannerisms were like a mix of The Rock and Kurt Angle !

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/the-turnstile/mexican-wrestler-dies-following-match-with-ex-wwe-superstar-rey-mysterio-192735547.html

tohostudios wrote:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/the-turnstile/mexican-wrestler-dies-following-match-with-ex-wwe-superstar-rey-mysterio-192735547.html

I saw this earlier and it's awful. It looks like a freak accident.

Sure does.  At least it doesn't sound like Mysterio botched the move; it sounds like the guy didn't take it properly.

This kind of thing is why I get annoyed when people say wrestling is "fake". It's "choreographed", it's not fake. There are very real injuries occurring in wrestling rings all over the country. And every once in a while something even worse like this.

tohostudios wrote:

Sure does.  At least it doesn't sound like Mysterio botched the move; it sounds like the guy didn't take it properly.  

This kind of thing is why I get annoyed when people say wrestling is "fake".  It's "choreographed", it's not fake.  There are very real injuries occurring in wrestling rings all over the country.  And every once in a while something even worse like this.

It looks like the ropes were too taut and that's what killed him.

The article says he tried to pull away from the move and took it in the trachea causing a severe whiplash.

tohostudios wrote:

The article says he tried to pull away from the move and took it in the trachea causing a severe whiplash.

In the videos I have seen it's clear that Rey missed the 619 and Perro was already dead from the fall on the ropes. Maybe that's what they mean by whiplash?

So Mysterio never even connected? Yeah, then your theory makes sense. In the video in that article you only see the guy just hanging there completely unresponsive; the actual move had already taken place.