Professional Wrestling

[Vertigo]

I think what the wwe needs is a good writer and talent that can back up the written material. CM punk is good at it, and he has a great future in it. Its just hard to to keep people interested when the amount of wrestlers people want to see is three.

I think what would be more important is allowing the wrestlers (and please WWE, they are wrestlers - it sounds like marketing bullshit every time someone says "superstars") the freedom to come up with their own speeches and contribute suggestions to their own storylines - a "bulletpoint" writing style. This was how people got over in WWE during the attitude era, and resulted in moments like the heel Rock's crowd interruption that you mentioned. Their current methods aren't working - events are still driven by wrestlers who were at their peak over a decade ago.

But WWE has to have absolute control over everything, and at this point I think this is a permanently ingrained corporate culture. When Vince is no longer in charge, the company will be run by notorious control freak Kevin Dunn, perennial yes-man Johnny Ace, and the Levesques (of whom Stephanie has been heading up the god-awful creative since WWE's monopoly and subsequent downturn, and Triple H is still a bit of a question mark in my opinion).
As far as I'm concerned, the best thing that could happen to wrestling is another WCW-style scenario in which a filthy rich wrestling enthusiast (and one who has a clue, no effence Dixie Carter...) launches a truly competitive product. This should become increasingly likely as the generation who grew up on the monday night wars and ECW come of age. While we can pick apart the myriad individual problems afflicting WWE, what it all boils down to is the complacency that arises from essentially running a monopoly.

[onthewall2983]

I didn't care much for the Attitude era, a lot of it was too raunchy for my tastes. Or at least when it comes to pro wrestling at least. Call me sensitive, but I was worried (even as a teenager myself then) about how that kind of stuff (particularly the homophobic, sexist, racist and parts of it all) was affecting the behaviors of young children at the time. And the bottom line for me is that it was WWE stealing ECW's act wholesale. And it gave Vince Russo his legacy. That alone is unforgivable.

However, I can't deny it did produce a lot of high points in the company's history. Great matches, hot crowds and just really good television at times. Austin and Rock were absolutely the right people at the right time and deserved every bit of the spots they maintained during that time. The Austin/McMahon feud was a truly epic angle, and Rock always put asses in seats with promos and almost always delivered on that promise.

The benefit of hindsight has allowed me to see it in both lights, but I'm sad that WCW ended up being the major casualty of the Monday Night War. For all the mind-blowingly dumb decisions and money-marking that went on there, their role in what I consider to be the third golden age of wrestling cannot be over-emphasized. Nitro threw down the gauntlet and was the fly in the ointment WWE needed in the mid-90's to get competitive again. The Mexican and Japanese talent, the NWO, and Goldberg all heightened the company to a level that would probably be sustained to this day, if not for the aforementioned reasons for it's eventual demise.

[BlueCalx]

I didn't care much for the Attitude era, a lot of it was too raunchy for my tastes. Or at least when it comes to pro wrestling at least. Call me sensitive, but I was worried (even as a teenager myself then) about how that kind of stuff (particularly the homophobic, sexist, racist and parts of it all) was affecting the behaviors of young children at the time. And the bottom line for me is that it was WWE stealing ECW's act wholesale. And it gave Vince Russo his legacy. That alone is unforgivable.

However, I can't deny it did produce a lot of high points in the company's history. Great matches, hot crowds and just really good television at times. Austin and Rock were absolutely the right people at the right time and deserved every bit of the spots they maintained during that time. The Austin/McMahon feud was a truly epic angle, and Rock always put asses in seats with promos and almost always delivered on that promise.

The benefit of hindsight has allowed me to see it in both lights, but I'm sad that WCW ended up being the major casualty of the Monday Night War. For all the mind-blowingly dumb decisions and money-marking that went on there, their role in what I consider to be the third golden age of wrestling cannot be over-emphasized. Nitro threw down the gauntlet and was the fly in the ointment WWE needed in the mid-90's to get competitive again. The Mexican and Japanese talent, the NWO, and Goldberg all heightened the company to a level that would probably be sustained to this day, if not for the aforementioned reasons for it's eventual demise.

Couldn't agree more. I remember the Attitude era fondly, but it produced, on average, more misses than hits, and it gave rise to a lot of awful programming decisions, chief among them allowing the whole McMahon family to take up hours and hours of precious screen time. I haven't watched WWE product in years, so I have no idea if they've become better about that or not, but Vince's cheap suits, his kiss-my-ass club, and his charisma black hole of a son were all big factors in my decision to tune out. The racism, sexism, and homophobia were even bigger turnoffs in retrospect, but not quite as apparent to me when I was twelve years old.

Do you remember watching WCW in its last ten months or so, when it was apparent that they'd lost the plot completely? Terrible, fascinating stuff. I can't believe, in retrospect, that some of that was even allowed on the air. Some day, some scholar is going to get access to all those tapes and write a mind-bending media studies thesis.

[onthewall2983]

Do you remember watching WCW in its last ten months or so, when it was apparent that they'd lost the plot completely? Terrible, fascinating stuff. I can't believe, in retrospect, that some of that was even allowed on the air. Some day, some scholar is going to get access to all those tapes and write a mind-bending media studies thesis.

I remember going to a Nitro taping in January 2001, a few months before it closed. Someone in the stands called Flair a faggot. I can't help but think the kind of Hell that person would have unleashed if they said it in Greensboro in the 80's. The only other thing memorable about that show was actually leaving it. We left during a match with Haku. Fast-forward to that Sunday, and he comes in late in that year's Royal Rumble match. Nothing of big note, but we thought it was quite funny.

The Turner networks were fully taken over by AOL Time Warner, and the big reason why they got away with running so much shoddy programming is that the company was probably not as enthusiastic about taking on a wrestling company. Rather than pulling the plug, they just let it fail on it's own accord until they had enough and sold everything off. And Ted Turner, who saved nearly everybody's jobs at Jim Crockett Promotions by buying them out, was already out the door himself.

[Piko]

I will never forget the rock asking,

"Do you like...pancakes?"

One of my favorite Rock moments was when he was heel and he went into the "if you smell what the Rock is cooking" the crowd went along with him. He stopped in the middle yelling," woah, woah, this isnt sing along with the Rock!"

funny shit.

I think what the wwe needs is a good writer and talent that can back up the written material. CM punk is good at it, and he has a great future in it. Its just hard to to keep people interested when the amount of wrestlers people want to see is three. I still watch because I have been into this since the 80's. and TNA is just god awful.

They have PLENTY of talent. Some, I think, they have absolutely zero clue on what to do with them. So they don't "get over", and eventually head over to TNA. I think they're fools for letting Kennedy/Anderson leave. The guy was a monster on the mic. I can think of many other more wasted talents. And while they release the promising ones, they still continue to market Cena, who looks marketable, but isn't over with the fans.

What made the attitude era so much better was the fact that they weren't afraid to take chances. Some of it worked, some didn't, and some was either ridiculous or too much. But they threw out their self-limitations, and for the most part, succeeded from it.

[Sporadic]

Reminder, tonight is the last night you can purchase both nights of Ring Of Honor's iPPV for $20

The Kevin Steen/El Generico Last Man Standing match on night 1 should be worth the price of admission alone.

Ring of Honor is offering 2 live shows called: Showdown in the Sun from the famous War Memorial Auditorium in Ft Lauderdale FL. The shows will be offered on Friday, March 30 and Saturday, March 31. Enjoy both shows for 1 low price.

Night 1 - 8 PM EST

ROH World Championship Triple Threat Match
ROH World Champion Davey Richards defends against "Die Hard" Eddie Edwards and Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini

The ICON vs The PRODIGY
Lance Storm vs "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett w/ Maria Kanellis

ROH World TV Championship Match
World TV Champion Jay Lethal defends against Kyle O'Reilly

LA REVANCHA!!
"Wrestling's Worst Nightmare" Kevin Steen vs El Generico

Dual Duel Night #1
The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) vs The All Night Express (Rhett Titus & Kenny King)

Proving Ground Match
ROH World Tag Team Champions Jay & Mark Briscoe vs TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste)

Tag Team Rematch
Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) vs Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander

Night 2 - 1 PM EST

Blind Destiny - One of these matches will be for the ROH World Championship

ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal vs Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini
"Die Hard" Eddie Edwards vs "Wrestling's Worst Nightmare" Kevin Steen
Current ROH World Champion Davey Richards vs "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin

ROH World Tag Team Championship Match
The Briscoes defend against Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin)

Dual Duel Night #2
The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) vs The All Night Express (Rhett Titus & Kenny King)

Former Partners Collide
Kyle O'Reilly vs Adam Cole

Special Attraction : Chikara vs Ring of Honor
"Technical Lightning" TJ Perkins vs Chikara's Fire Ant

Scheduled to Appear:
- "The Dominant Male" Tommaso Ciampa w/ The Embassy Ltd.
- Cedric Alexander & Caprice Coleman
- "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett w/ Maria Kanellis
- More wrestlers to be announced soon!

http://www.gfl.tv/Events/Fight/Wrest...BOTH_DAYS/1333

And Dragon Gate USA is also running a iPPV but their's is only $1.99 (although you only get the live stream, no watching later like you get with the RoH GoFightTV stream)

Either one should compliment (or most likely be much better than) Wrestlemania

Main Event #1 – Open The United Gate Title Match
CIMA & Ricochet defend vs. Chuck Taylor & Rich Swann

Main Event #2 – First Time Ever Dream Match
Low Ki vs. PAC

Main Event #3
Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Akira Tozawa

Special Challenge Match
Masato Yoshino vs. Rich Swann

Stable Shootout Match #1 - Street Fight
Sabu & Jon Davis vs. Arik Cannon & Pinkie Sanchez

Stable Shootout Match #2 - Fox Picks Callihan's Opponent
Sami Callihan vs. BxB Hulk

Stable Shootout Match #3 - Callihan Picks Fox's Opponent
AR Fox vs. Uhaa Nation

http://www.wwnlive.com/event-dgusa-3-30-12.html

[twilight explosion]

probably gonna be able to meet Jerry Lawler and DDP next weekend at this anime convention. they're gonna be at a convention that's at the same place so I guess since Kaiju Big Battel is gonna be there they decided to do some kind of crossover thing. either way, getting to meet the king and ddp is gonna be awesome!

[Mafu]

Stone cold

[Piko]

Yeah, TW didn't hold back when it came to the subject of wrestling. They wanted it gone from the start. And the company eventually withering away until it's inevitable desmise. The product became real bland towards the end. The writing was bad, everything was bad. They ended up getting dominated by WWF. The lack of support from time warner was probably a definite factor though.

[thevoid99]

Yeah, TW didn't hold back when it came to the subject of wrestling. They wanted it gone from the start. And the company eventually withering away until it's inevitable desmise. The product became real bland towards the end. The writing was bad, everything was bad. They ended up getting dominated by WWF. The lack of support from time warner was probably a definite factor though.

And Eric Bischoff did try to buy it with a group of investors while ensuring a TV deal with Time Warner or Fox. Yet, when Jamie Kellner pulled the plug on WCW. Bischoff backed out because WCW wouldn't be worth anything if there was no outlet for the organization on TV. I liked WCW but started to sour on it in 1999. Then when David Arquette won the belt, that was it for me. I enjoyed watching WWE and WCW at that time. That was a fun time to be a wrestling fan.

[Piko]

After the NWO, I don't think they knew where else to go. On a side-note, what time is wrestlemania? Started at 5 (cst) last year, I think. Ended up missing some of it.

[Piko]

Great wrestlemania! Taker/Triple H, easily, match of the night.

[Space Suicide]

Great wrestlemania! Taker/Triple H, easily, match of the night.

Well, was there any doubt in that?

[Piko]

Well, was there any doubt in that?

Between that and Rock/Cena, yeah.

[Fifey]

Bryan Danielson, your WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION and one of the best workers in the company, facing the ROYAL RUMBLE WINNER is the CURTAIN JERKER? seriously? and then to have the match be 18 seconds? Absolutely ridiculous.

[thevoid99]

I'm not happy about that match either. What the fuck?! With the exception of Punk/Jericho, HHH/Undertaker, and Rock/Cena, that was a pretty lackluster Wrestlemania.

[Piko]

Yeah, Daniel Bryan jobbing in 18 seconds was pretty bad... not a fan. But that was terrible. Either he did something to piss someone off, or they did that to make time for the other matches. I didn't even watch the tag match.

[Tums206_BFY]

I didn't think WM was great it was pretty lackluster to me with the one exception being the Undertaker vs. HHH which was great. Y2J and Punk could have been so much better and the same could be said about ROCK/Cena because that didn't live up to the whole year of hype we had to endure. But those were the 3 best matches.

BTW the reason Daniel Bryan lost the title in 18 seconds (according to various rumors), and man are you guys gonna love this, was because they wanted to break the previous WM record for fastest match which was some Chavo/Someone else I can't remember who else match a while ago. Well even the geniuses at WWE managed to fuck that up because the record was 8 secs and the DB/Sheamus match was 18 seconds. What a waste. Overall I would probably give a C- at best D+ at worst for this show. Really kinda of a let down for what is suppose to be the Superbowl of wrestling. But Taker/HHH/HBK were great no doubt about that!

[Kid Charlemagne]

I thought it sucked. Royal Rumble sucked and so did this. Daniel Bryan is one of the best in the WWE and not only do they make his match (with the fucking Royal Rumble winner) first, it's over in 18 seconds and it could have been one of the better matches from the PPV and they make it a squash. Then they make Taker/HHH too early in the card and that happened to be the best match of the evening. Punk/Jericho was okay, though I think Y2J is past his prime, this match would've been great five years ago, but Jericho isn't the same wrestler he was back then and the match suffered because of it. I will admit Punk with the chair while Jericho yelled "hit me" and shouting out things about Punk's family was funny and very Ric Flair-esque. Rock/Cena was just plain awful. The stupid music before introducing both wrestlers and the bullshit Cena-people's Elbow ending was clown shoes. Not to mention Cena can't wrestle, he's a brawler and a showman. This piece of crap should've been early in the card. Just lazy all around for the WWE, who after doing great jobs with matches and storylines have fallen flat with each PPV this year.

[Fifey]

That would be Chavo Guerrero vs. Kane for the ECW Championship in 2008, holding the record for shortest Mania match ever.

You'd think they could cut some of the crap back stage and let the focus be on *wrestling* at WRESTLEmania.

Rumor is Brock Lesnar signed a one year contract and may appear on Raw tonight.

[Kid Charlemagne]

Heard that rumor about Lesnar as well. Casey (or Cicatriz on these boards) told me Lesnar and Batista were backstage last night. Looking forward to the fallout.

[Piko]

Lesnar would be a huge surprise considering he's still under contract with UFC. I remember reading that Dana White wouldn't let him go anywhere else while still under contract. Maybe they worked something out. And has he gotten his health under control?

[Space Suicide]

Brock Lesnar would be a nice fresh breath of air. His last folly in the WWE at Wrestlemania XX and his loss to Goldberg and further no show follow up after on SmackDown! was lame and a let down. I know he wanted to pursue his short-lived Minnesota Vikings career but he should've stuck with WWE for a bit longer before going to UFC. Just my opinion.

[Space Suicide]

Vicki Guerrero needs to get lost. Tired of her and her being the manager/valet for Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger isn't doing anything for anyone.

New wrestler: Lord Tensai

Hahahahah wow.

Hello A-Train, welcome back.

[Kid Charlemagne]

LOL at Prince Albert being back in the WWE.

[Piko]

I lol'd. I think everyone in the crowd knew who he was also. And the rumors were spot on about lesnar. I liked the "we want lesnar" chants and how Cena only continued to sob. I hope lesnar destroys him.

[thevoid99]

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

Daniel Bryan is so over with the crowd. The Miami crowd was great. Cheering for the Rock, Punk, Jericho, A-Train!, Santino, Zack Ryder, and BROCK LESNAR!!! I was like "fuck Cena up!" and he did. That was a damn good Raw!

[Kid Charlemagne]

So tonight we got a damn fine show a night after we got one of the worst Mania's in recent memory. Funny how that works. Good to see Daniel Bryan is still in the mix. Loved Rock's segment at the beginning. But as disappointing as that Jericho/Punk match was, Y2J coming out and and antagonizing Punk again was awesome and classic, we can only hope this leads to a better rematch at Extreme Rules considering both Punk/Y2J have delivered awesome segments towards each other but failed to deliver the match. Lesnar is awesome, him F5ing Cena was badass and it should lead to a decent match if we're lucky. Let's just hope they don't fuck up Lesnar by putting him against Sheamus at some point. Speaking of which, fuck Sheamus and Del Rio, worst segment of the night and it's going to lead to a worse match down the line.

[Piko]

Yeah, fuck Sheamus. He's not terrible or anything, but I'm certainly bored of him. And I'll admit that I didn't care about his match. But, I was still shocked that they squashed Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds. Sucks to be him right now...

[thevoid99]

I don't have anything against Sheamus either. I like the guy. I think he's a pretty good performer. Pretty likeable. The way he was chosen to win like that didn't make him look good. I was hoping for something more. Instead, he gets the Miami crowd hating him. It's bad for him but for Daniel Bryan, it's another door opening for him where he could be a face for the company based on that crowd reaction.