Wrestling Discussion Thread (WWE, TNA, ECW, WCW, etc.) - Page 206

Scott hall is a prick. What else is new?

Lesnar was never amazing on the mix but he always came off believable and I can even remember some of his promos being pretty damn good, unlike other main event big guys like Goldberg, lashley or even Batista(save for his last few years). I like that Lesnar is back but why is he attacking cena? Don't get me wrong, anytime smiley gets bested but there's no point to Lesnar getting cena. If he was Johnny aces boy, shouldn't he have gone after punk instead?

Because when he beats Cena he'll be the number one contender

Ace wants him as "the face of the WWE". Cena is the current face of the company. It's a no-brainer.

But what is Mr. Excitement's beef with Cena, specifically?  Is he just fucking with him because he's a face?

yea, he seems to be just going after the big faces. Punk and Cena respectively, with a little left over for Santino and Teddy. He's just playing generic heel GM.

 

Personally I would have liked him to remain a little ambiguous, maybe having a heel and a face assistant battling to convince him which way to go. I mean, didn't HHH get ousted for messing with the Locker Room as well? I wish the E didn't think that we have the attention span of a butterfly. We do remember what happened last year.....

It's Brock's beef. He hates Cena, he's legitimate, Cena's not, and he wants to topple Cena as the face of the company. He's Johnny's big new signing, so of course Ace is going to back his play.

 

A live shot from TNA's LOCKDOWN 2012 PPV (Yes, the one with ALL steel cage matches)

 

 

This is what Hogan/Bischoff and a creative team headed by fucking morons will do to a wrestling company.

WOW^

 

That is pathetic. It kills me to see a company with so much talent go to such utter waste due to poor management, poor booking, and poor business. I know wrestling isn't exactly HOT right now but with the amount of talent on that roster (and the amount of HoFer's) you would think they could do better than that.

 

My fiance got me tickets to a TNA house show a couple years ago. The turnout was horrible...couldn't have been more than 200 people there. Still, I got to finally see Samoa Joe and AJ Styles have a match...so it wa worth it for that alone.

I can't believe they're doing Cena vs. Lesnar at Extreme Rules. I'm so fucking pumped now. I was going to be happy even with a Lesnar appearance, I would have been more than happy with Lesnar just destroying a jobber. But to see Cena vs. Lesnar?? Holy shit. Now I read today that it's going to be an "Extreme Rules" match meaning no DQ and no count out. 

 

I'm not sure if these are real or photoshopped but here are some pics of Lesnar's new ring attire: 

 

 

 

 

If they are real pics he looks awesome. I love that they're keeping the MMA look. He looks like a beast.

He looks like a pear in reverse.  So top-heavy.

Every time I see a picture of Lesnar, in my head I hear the Monarch calling Brock Samson a "Swedish murder machine."

Wasn't a fan of RAW.

TNA just drives me nut with their inept booking. Even when they manage to trip over something that is interesting, they fuck up within weeks, sometime hours. Less is fucking more, guys. When I watched the opening of that show awhile back where they had Bobby Roode "crossing the line" at the previous Sunday's PPV by disrespecting Dixie and "injuring" Sting. I thought they were on the right track in terms of planting seeds for a good, long-term scenerio. By the close of the first segment, they'd already brought out Sting who talked about a "replacement" which prompted the entire crowd to chant HOGAN! until Sting announced... surprise, surprise.... his replacement was... Hogan.

 

Both the World Title and Knockout Division seem to be switching out the major players every couple months or so with no actual momentum in any way. AJ Styles will be the "face of the company" at one moment and then he'll be this weird warm-up tweener who will fight the champ on free TV while they build to him wrestling someone else on the pay show. Same with Anderson, Van Dam, Angle, and so on and so forth. They have recognizeable names from other companies, very talented homegrown talent, and two hours of TV a week. And all they can do is have Hulk Hogan hobble to the ring and co-sign Eric Bischoff's son as the future of wrestling?
 

 

That is a fucking pathetic turnout for a PPV. What a slap in the face to the wrestlers who give a damn and try to put on a good show in the ring. Too bad Dixie can't go around giving away free tix or if the rumors were ever true PAYING a group of fans to show up so it looks full anymore. Not since Mommy and Daddy took away her purse strings.

 

On to RAW now. Good opener between Sexual Chocolate and CM Punk especially with the jacked up England crowd. R-Sherlock and other "hey look we're in London so let's make British sterotypical jokes!" segments were fucking awful. Brock has definitely improved upon his speaking ability since he came back. Maybe it's not such a bad thing to bring "legitimacy" back to WWE. It didn't seem like Brock was a character speaking like he was in a cartoon, rather just sounded like Brock Lesnar, the guy who just wants to kick ass. Poor John Smily... jobs to Tensai and has fallen off the ladder since WM so much that even David Otunga magically is alright after receiving an AA 30 seconds earlier. Seriously, go watch it again. Really WWE? The same move that had superstars like HBK, Orton, Rock all laying down for a good minute til the show segment is over and now you have DAVID OTUNGA just stand up and half heartedly hold his back while standing next to Johnny Ace?

Back to Tensai though, good win for him which makes him look legit.

 

 

A bit of a throwback to the early 90s too when he comes out, really did the Japanese themed Shredder look.

 

 

....But then it's hard to take him seriously when he fucking looks like this under the wardrobe getup.

 

 

 

Also, David Otunga is Chris Masters with a personality (hey it's actually a gimmick going to Harvard donchaknow)

 

 

... and Black, yes I didn't forget.

Cena's been no-selling shit for years.  It's payback time!

Good point

 

 

WWF nostalgic moment of the day: That time when Triple H put over Brooklyn Brawler (through Y2J)

 

Hey Fett, what do you think of Austin Aries recent comments?

 

 

 

 

I love the "Smokey Mountain of Honor" comment. It's so true. Cornette is dragging that place down. How do they expect to grow when Cornette's idea of wrestling is still stuck in the old territory days? Cornette's just happy with RoH staying as is and filling up high school gyms. I've seen old Ring of Honor with Samoa Joe, Aries, Punk, Daniel Bryan, etc. and that was actually pretty good compared to the shit they put on today. Gabe was a much better booker than Cornette. 

It's still worlds better than TNA.

 

Reruns of GLOW are better than TNA.

 

Ring of Corporate Honor and I have parted ways due to my discontent with the direction of the promotion since FINAL BATTLE 2011. The debacle of the recent Wrestlemania weekend shows made my decision an easy one since this wasn't the ROH I got hooked on a couple years ago. I gave the new ROH a boatload of chances and they've blown all of them and now I'm done with ROH. How done? I tossed all of my post-Gabe ROH dvds out, along with the new logo t-shirt. Good fucking riddance.

 

 

I still keep a plastic femur with a camera flash bulb installed in the end, in case I need it for self defense.

 

 

I wasn't even talking about TNA there... 

 

Did you read the latest TNA spoilers? I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Even with Russo gone, the company is booking itself into oblivion.

I hate the idea of Lesnar having the MMA get up in a WWE ring. It just seems wrong and it leads me to believe that he isn't going to wrestle like the Brock Lesnar I loved as a kid.

 

TNA sounds like complete shit this week if you know what I'm saying.

Punk's gonna sing the seventh inning stretch on May 8th at Wrigley.  Apparently, fans bombarded the Cubs asking them to get Punk, a lifelong Cubs fan, to sing the stretch.

OK, so I've been reading this thread, and it's honestly starting to get me interested in wrestling again. I liked it on a superficial level as a kid, but these are some really intriguing discussions. As such, I had some questions as to where I should get started:

 

-I really want to go back and watch some of the classic WWF/WCW guys like Stone Cold, Undertaker, Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Rock-in-his-prime, etc. What are the "essential" matches, Wrestlemanias, and other PPV events? I'm pretty sure a lot of them are on DVD.

 

-What's the general opinion of Hulk Hogan as a wrestler?

 

-Who are the best new guys? I'm seeing a lot of praise for guys like Kurt Angle and CM Punk in this thread in particular.

 

-Which Divas are actually good wrestlers? Victoria/Lisa Marie Varon, Trish and Torrie always seemed legitimately badass to me.

 

-Is Jim Ross the incredibly loud, enthusiastic Southern announcer guy? I remember one of them being particularly energized from the few matches I actually saw. And I've read praise for him as one of the best commentators on other sites.

 

Also, if I may share a story: for a third grade project, I got to interview Dave "Fit" Finlay because my mom taught his son in preschool. I remember him being an incredibly nice, no-bullshit kind of guy. When I asked him the age-old question if wrestling was fake, he thought about it for a moment and said, "Well, when I get hit in the back of the head with a chair, it feels pretty real to me." How's he doing these days?

 

 

What is really killing them is their inability to keep anyone strong and over without having them directly in the main event picture.  AJ Styles went from top heel champion to warm-up challenger for Roode-Storm. Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson, and Van Dam went from being the top names of the company to dissapearing off TV with little notice to coming back as surprises. 

 

As a viewer, I'm also completely tired of the storyline CEO, GM, Commisoner, etc. who comes out at the top of show and starts announcing all these last-minute matches to hype everything up. It wa sone thing during their height of the Monday Night wars when there was an influx of incoming talent but it's so disgustingly played out now. I can't imagine how anyone can actually mark out for a damn title match anymore. Anyone who is anybody in the company has already worn that belt at least once in the last two years and change. Switch it up a little bit. Have someone like Eric Young challenge for the belt. We know he won't win but at least, it makes for a show that is decidely different from their PPV's. Instead of a four-week build-up that has two feuding wrestlers competing in several variations of the same scenerio on free TV and expecting for people to pay to watch the PPV show, have them work matches with other guys on the roster so when they watch the PPV show, it feels fresh. Ditto for booking a return title match from a PPV show on the following week's free TV. What are they thinking?

 

 

 

So that chick who's in the sex tape with Hogan is rumored to be Bubba The Love Sponge's ex-wife. If it's true... holy shit... good for Hulk. 

 

 

His current wife is pretty hot and about 20+ years younger than he is and he was banging his best friend's hot wife. Yeah, I'd say divorce has been pretty good for him. 

Thanks. Also, could someone explain some of these terms to me? I know "heel" (villain), "face" (hero), "jobbing", "kayfabe", etc. But what exactly does it mean to be a "worker"? What's the difference between those who are and aren't?

 

Also, see the addition in my initial question about Fit Finlay.

 

 

A worker is just used to describe if the guy is a good wrestler or not. You mostly hear it being tossed around when you say something like "Hulk Hogan isn't a good worker (wrestler)" or "Bret Hart is a great worker". Also, it's used when people will say this guy really knows how to "work" the crowd. He basically just knows how to control the crowd and get the crowd to cheer or boo him. Then they use to term when talking about the difference between a "work" and a "shoot". A "work" is obviously scripted and planned out and a "shoot" is real and something that is off script. 

 

As for Finley he had a lot of success in the WWF/E after WCW closed down he signed with Vince McMahon and was a trainer for the most part before joining the SmackDown roster in 2006 and became pretty popular. He was a wrestler/trainer until he was released about two years ago. He was working as an agent at a house show and something went wrong. I think he booked someone to come out and interrupt the singing of the National Anthem or even if he didn't book that he was still in charge of the show so it was his fault and Vince fired him. I think he's wrestled in Ring of Honor a couple times and just recently I read that he wants to return to the WWE. 

Cool. Couple more questions: what's a "clinic", and what does it mean to "cut a promo"?

A "clinic" is a match that stands as an example of the performance art at its best; in terms of technical wrestling, difficult moves, or simply effective storytelling that gets the crowd engaged. "Putting on a clinic" is akin to "showing how it's done."

Promos were the tough-talking speeches that wrasslers would give to the backstage interviewer characters in what were essentially commercials for the next coming live show back in the day. "Cutting a promo" would consist of equal parts trash talk about the opponents and dire warnings of the coming distribution of bodily harm. Today, any verbal outpouring of grievances can be said to be a promo. Usage: "Holy shit, Fleed* really cut a promo on the new kid in that 25 Best Things About Yor, Hunter From The Future Thread."


*Name used as an an example, for illustrative purposes only. Fleed is a gentleman and a gentle man.

 

 

To be fair though the WWE does the same exact things. Look what's currently going on with Laurinitis. Since McMahon became a character on TV in the '90s there has now always been a GM, CEO, Commissioner, etc. It is boring but it's done in both companies. 

 

Also, the WWE has given away several rematches for free on TV following a PPV. 

 

The problem is no one takes TNA seriously because they're stuck in the Impact Zone. Yeah the booking doesn't help that much. But they come across as so second rate because they hold pretty much every show in a TV studio that holds about 900 fans. To make things worse they looked like a cheap ripoff version of ECW at the LockDown PPV. They couldn't even set up their "DixieTron" which looks kind of nice. They couldn't even cover the floor around the ring with mats. It looked terrible. They're just recently starting to get things right with who they push. They've been pushing Roode, Storm, Samoa Joe & Magnus, Austin Aries, Bully Ray, MCMG, Morgan, Crimson, etc. and that is a good thing. The Garett Bischoff storyline sucked and I hate seeing Mr. Anderson back on TV. But other than that I've been enjoying Roode's title reign, the build of the tag team division, Samoa Joe & Magnus is my favorite tag team since The Miz & John Morrison. Bully Ray has been great, Aries is becoming really popular. He is definitely their version of CM Punk/Daniel Bryan. 

 

The Open Fight Night sounds like a terrible idea though. 

 

 

Thanks again! Incidentally, Netflix has a bunch of "Wrestlemania Anthology" discs. Would those be a good starting point for some of the best matches?

Tough Enough winner Andy "Silent Rage" Leavine has been let go. He Tweets, "On my way to acquire some much needed experience. I'm just gettin' started in this business."

 

 

How will I ever go on? 

 

And I love how no one can admit that it's over for them when WWE dumps them.  "Oh, I'm just getting started, you haven't seen the last of me!"   YES I HAVE.

No additional recommendations for the wrestling noob, Harl? I thought we were friends... (I kid, I kid)

I wanted to crack a "silently raging his way to Unemployment" joke, then felt too guilty to do it, and now I'm second guessing my own conscience. I blame you for being such a bad influence, Harley.
Edited by Reasor - 4/23/12 at 7:56pm

 

 

 

Buy everything with The Rock on the cover.  You won't regret it.

 

 

Well, I *do* like him in movies for the most part....

 

And the parody Avatar: The Last Airbender did of him ("The Boulder", voiced by Mick Foley!) was hilarious.

 

Sure, why not! His theme/entrance music is also pretty awesome.

lol this pathetic crowd finally woke up and gave up some Yes ! chants during the Brock Josh Mathews backstage segment

 

how wonderful, a boring Divas match made even more bland! A Lumberjill match... which means it's time for Lawler to put on his rape goggles.

 

One of the Bellas champion? Weren't they leaving the company??

 

 

That CM Punk/drunk test segment was one of the worst. Not to mention that he f**ked up the backward alphabet TWICE when he was supposed to do it correctly the second time while the ruse was uncovered. I've been harsh on this crowd since the opening but can't really blame them if this is the show we're getting.

Edited by I M Wrong - 4/23/12 at 7:09pm

Why is it that these three hour shows are always such duds?

I saw the news that the show was going to have a contract signing ceremony, said "aww Goddammit," was relieved to see they were getting it over with in the beginning of the show, and then it got interrupted so they could have the same segment at the end.

I take pills to avoid these emotional roller coasters. WHY AREN'T THE PILLS WORKING

I can forgive Punk fucking up the alphabet the second time, because I couldn't say it backwards, and I don't drink.  He almost had me worried, because red Solo cups=BOOZE. 

 

I'm pissed that Beth dropped that belt to Nikki fuckin Bella.  Fuck that. 

 

That last segment was terrible, and Brock copied Punk's contract negotiation with Vince from last year. 

 

FIRE JACK SWAGGER.

 

 

You should definitely check out the recent Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels rivalry dvd. It's probably the best and most controversal stories in all of wrestling.

 

Also Raw sucked tonight. Started off strong, for like 30 minutes, and than fell flatter than a Test promo(RIP). Lesnar was clearly stalling for some fucking reason at the end of it, because the talking he did right after Cena came out was way more natural and less spread out than his demands. I think this worked better than Punks promo with Vince, because it made Lesnar look more like a douche whereas Punk was being the "Voice of the Voiceless" and trying to get over as a face in 2 weeks after being a heel for 2 years.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. Lesnar, during real air time, seemed to either forgetting his lines as he was constantly repeating dialogue or stalling for Cena to come out. What a shame after a great backstage segment 2 weeks ago and an effective taped promo last week he's become a puppet in delivering lines. Maybe Heyman should be brought back to be his mic.

 

I never got the appeal of Swagger ever since he came into the WWE. Same goes for Drew Mcyntire. For some reason there are those internet backers who think Swagger and Mcyntire are the greatest hidden talents in wrestling. Yes, one who is a Kurt Angle clone and the other whose biggest achievement was being called "future world heavyweight champion" by Vinny Mac ages ago. Terrible mic skills, absent charisma in the ring, lacking in creativity sucking up air time while a legitimately talented guy like Dolph Ziggler keeps getting paired up with these stiffs.

Regarding that "can't imbibe within 12 hours" loophole....why didn't Vince invoke that about a billion times when he was feuding with Austin?! 

 

ETA: Says a lot about Detroit's Finest when they are more concerned about a possible CM Drunk when there is a DEAD BODY IN THE FREEZER BACKSTAGE.

Edited by HarleyQuinn22 - 4/23/12 at 10:51pm

 

 

I thought the 2nd place guy should have won anyhow.  He definitely had charisma, he just didn't have size.  Was already a decent heel.

Hah, that is a fair point about Stone Cold "Steveweiser after every match" Austin

 

In fairness to the Detroit cops, it is after all a guy who survived a cement truck burial

 

and a toss off a balcony to concrete floor on a wheelchair... off a ladder lol

 

 

I'm guessing Paul Bearer will make it out of a cool storage alive and well.

Hey,

 

Go find and watch

 

The True Story of Wrestlemania

The Rise and Fall of WCW

The Rise and Fall of ECW

Beyond the Mat

 

those are good for the general history of each organization, as well a look at the industry in general

 

for wrestlers

 

Wrestling with Shadows (Story of Bret Hart)

All the 'Best Of' Videos

the aforementioned Rivalries DVD with Shawn and Bret

Austin Vs McMahon for one of the best rivalries of all time

 

that should get ya going :)

enjoy