The WWE Thread

[tbay]

I only watch clips of wwe on youtube because I can't stand all the absolutely horrible promos on the current product but I just finished catching up on some wwe on youtube.

I finally watched stuff from the Shield and Ryback as they seem to be the new stars of the show. Wow, all four of them are horrible on the mic and I couldn't even sit through a full promo from any of them. I like Ryback's look (Goldberg 2013), but the shield gimmick makes no sense to me. Are they a police unit of some sort? Guns aren't allowed in the wrestling ring so their look made no sense to me, unless somethings changed since I watched regularly ten years ago.

On the positive side I just discovered Bray Wyatt, WOW, this guy is a phenomenal promo, I'll be watching his development as he's the first new school guy I've been excited about. They have him doing that old Waylon Mercy gimmick, but Wyatt gives me that stone cold steve austin vibe, a guy that can be a real rebel. A well built up feud between a face Bray Wyatt versus a heel John Cena would be really entertaining.

I'm sure they'll blow it with him though and have him dancing with that Flash Funk rip off (the "Funkasaur" is his name or something stupid like that) eventually .

 

[Kiva]

but the shield gimmick makes no sense to me. Are they a police unit of some sort?

The Sheild are the hottest thing in Wrestling right now. People have been wanting Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose to make it big for years now and Roman Reign is a surprise because he fits in well with the two. They are 3 terrific workers, and if the future of WWE is a bunch of guys who can put on great 15 minute matches id rather that than being able to talk for 15 minutes. Because when the PPV's come around its always the matches people talk about and get behind, theres no needless pandering to the crowd then. And besides, their whole Shield gimmik is they are crusaders for justice, they enforce their own agenda and thus have a kinda military feel and look.

Guns aren't allowed in the wrestling ring so their look made no sense to me, unless somethings changed since I watched regularly ten years ago.

Surely you havent forgotten the big boss man

 

[tbay]

I was actually surprised that they are the hottest storyline in wrestling right now, they did nothing for me.

I'll check out their matches at some point, but all the crowd reactions for the matches tend to be generated from the promos/storylines that get people interested to watch matches/ppv's. Since wwe is in a down period I can see how work rate would be what carries the company to the next boom period though so I do see your point.

Surely you havent forgotten the big boss man

Hard times, you'll be servin hard times, you know the Big Bossman will make you walk the line...

 

[FLOSI]

Ambrose and Rollins can flat out go, which is why Daniel Bryan and CM Punk are popular. There's too many guys that just don't have an ounce of wrestling ability at the top of the foodchain right now. For every Cody Rhodes, Chris Jericho and Alberto Del Rio there's John Cena, Ryback, Big Show, Shemus, Mark Henry, etc that are all involved in bigger storylines.

Bryan has been a big part of the resurection of the Tag Team division, which was long overdue for an injection of TV time, though most have wanted to see him back in featured 1 on 1 matches. Punk is the face of the WWE for those of us who realize that John Cena is for 8 year old boys... Cena is a great guy and all, but he's just not entertaining to adult fans while Punk can wrestle and entertain.... not mention, his "gimmick" is genuine, and that goes over as a face or heal.

 

[karamazov80]

I really like the SHIELD. . .but I, too, don't know what the heck they are really supposed to represent/be. They've got some generic "we fight for injustice" argument, dress up like a SWAT team, and beat up random good guys. But they do it so well! And yeah, Rollins and Ambrose are amazing in-ring talents. If anything, Rollins is still holding back in his tag matches. Looking forward to see him in more one-on-one matches.

Oh and I absolutely hate how the big names only wrestle in PPV matches now. I don't want to always pay to see HHH or the Rock wrestle. WTF.

Could be worse. Remember the history of televised wrestling until, oh, the late 1990s? 90% of what we saw was headliner or mid-carder vs. a jobber. Raw would have been about 3 or 4 of those, various promos, a few minutes of that annoying guy selling HBK t-shirts, and then a main event on the order of Duke Droese vs. Road Dogg as Jeff Jarrett's soundman.

I would say his mic skills are better than 90% of the roster.

Really? Man, I would say he's rivaled only by Khali as the worst guy they allow to talk on television at all. Yes, I even think the Miz is better.

 

[FLOSI]

I feel embarassed for Ryback when they let him talk... still, they need to let him continue to develop.

Yeah, while Ambrose is easily the best technician of the three, in a time when there are very few around, Rollins can really come off as rather Sabu like with the risks he's willing to take.... and I LOVE that!!! Stiffer WWE ropes ill help him too.

[ame="https://youtu.be/yrpMgfBk8JQ"]

[/ame]

 

[karamazov80]

But Sabu had nothing on this guy's athleticism. Man, WWE needs Jimmy Jacobs

 

[FLOSI]

But Sabu had nothing on this guy's athleticism. Man, WWE needs Jimmy Jacobs

Oh, for sure. He's closer to AJ Styles/RVD in terms of athleticism.

 

[Kiva]

Just watched Bret Hart appreciation night. Kind of awkward at times, Because he kept crediting people who made him what he is today and as he started to list names every single one of them had died and you could see him stop in his tracks as he spoke as he reaised

Its such a sad state and we are so lucky Bret is still around after his stroke. And Jerry introducing him who was a Dead man last year. So much Death of the old era is terrible

 

[Bardoon]

I'm glad WWE is working really hard in making amends with Bret Hart and showing the present WWE fans and younger generations what a superstar this guy was back in his day.

Growing up in the late 80's and early 90's, Bret Hart was my favorite wrestler. I was Bret Hart for Halloween and remember my grandma making me a Hart costume to wear. The guy was the epitome of technical wrestling skill, devotion to the business and a true living legend.

It's really too bad he went to WCW and had a lot of differences with Vince towards the tail end of his career. I don't know how the Attitude Era might have been had he stuck around, but I can only think that it would've been a lot better.

The Best There Is, The Best There Was and STILL The Best There Ever Will Be!

 

[Kiva]

Ive been watching a fair bit of Bray Wyatt on youtube today. Ive seen him before on NXT on and off and thought its awesome. But im loving what im seeing today. Cant wait until the family make their debut. Hes like a sadistic Mick Foley. And yeah, mick Foley would go through tables and be power bombed on to pins but Bray seems alot more suicidal and evil in character. (though thankfully he isnt the kind of guy who is going to get over by being hit be objects)

 

[tbay]

I'm glad WWE is working really hard in making amends with Bret Hart and showing the present WWE fans and younger generations what a superstar this guy was back in his day.

Growing up in the late 80's and early 90's, Bret Hart was my favorite wrestler. I was Bret Hart for Halloween and remember my grandma making me a Hart costume to wear. The guy was the epitome of technical wrestling skill, devotion to the business and a true living legend.

It's really too bad he went to WCW and had a lot of differences with Vince towards the tail end of his career. I don't know how the Attitude Era might have been had he stuck around, but I can only think that it would've been a lot better.

The Best There Is, The Best There Was and STILL The Best There Ever Will Be!

Wcw buried Bret, he had so much buzz going into his debut. Imagine if he came out and challenged hogan or sting after starcade and billed himself as the wwf champ. They had a unification match fall into their laps. They had hall and nash who were well known friends of hbk and nothing was done there. They had anvil, bulldog, Benoit and Jericho - a new hart foundation. What did we get? Bret jobbing left and right and wearing a hogan shirt.

For a fellow hitfan (why didnt the wwf come up with a name for Bret's fans, besides Canadians, ). Most don't care about 1/6 wrasslin figures, but I thought you'd get a kick out of this.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Ive been watching a fair bit of Bray Wyatt on youtube today. Ive seen him before on NXT on and off and thought its awesome. But im loving what im seeing today. Cant wait until the family make their debut. Hes like a sadistic Mick Foley. And yeah, mick Foley would go through tables and be power bombed on to pins but Bray seems alot more suicidal and evil in character. (though thankfully he isnt the kind of guy who is going to get over by being hit be objects)

Yes, he really does remind me of mick foley, but I'm sure the wwe will screw this up. ill be watching this guys career closely.

Just watched Bret Hart appreciation night. Kind of awkward at times, Because he kept crediting people who made him what he is today and as he started to list names every single one of them had died and you could see him stop in his tracks as he spoke as he reaised

Its such a sad state and we are so lucky Bret is still around after his stroke. And Jerry introducing him who was a Dead man last year. So much Death of the old era is terrible

Real shame, But i hear the new era of wrestlers learned from the horror stories of the older guys. Can't believe these guys don't have their medical costs covered by the wwe.

 

[tbay]

Thinking about bret getting buried in wcw made me think of how often the wwf and wcw completely dropped the ball on money angles.

What potential story lines/matches do you think wrestling promotions dropped the ball on the most and what do you think could have been done differently?

The biggest one that comes to mind is the wcw invasion. I understand contract issues affected the guys they brought in, but they could have easily waited until they had flair in the fold the next year. Even without the heavy hitters they still had ddp and booker t, but they just buried those guys.

Why didnt they reboot it when they got Eric bishoff in? I believe they even had goldberg in the fold at that point. On Eric's debut he hugged vince!!!

 

[karamazov80]

Totally agree with you guys on the Hitman. Hart Foundation was my favorite tag team during the golden age of WWF tag teams, but in the '90s, I was actually more of an Owen fan than a Bret fan. But as time has progressed he has become my favorite "vintage" wrestler, just edging out '80s Macho Man. I'm very jealous of your great custom figure tbay. What he represented about the industry, taking it seriously and engaging fans by what he did IN the ring, is something that was put on the back burner for the longest time as McMahon pushed the biggest guys with the best mic and behind-the-scene political skills. Now that guys like Punk and Bryan are getting lots of attention I feel the spirit of the Hitman is coming back a bit, and I hope it stays.

 

[tbay]

Totally agree with you guys on the Hitman. Hart Foundation was my favorite tag team during the golden age of WWF tag teams, but in the '90s, I was actually more of an Owen fan than a Bret fan. But as time has progressed he has become my favorite "vintage" wrestler, just edging out '80s Macho Man. I'm very jealous of your great custom figure tbay. What he represented about the industry, taking it seriously and engaging fans by what he did IN the ring, is something that was put on the back burner for the longest time as McMahon pushed the biggest guys with the best mic and behind-the-scene political skills. Now that guys like Punk and Bryan are getting lots of attention I feel the spirit of the Hitman is coming back a bit, and I hope it stays.

Loved the hart foundation and the bulldogs, I wish dynamite kid was around for that new hart foundation late 90s run.

Thanks for the compliment, I'm really grateful to the artists that helped me with it as there's not a lot of interest in wrestling customs. I hope enterbay or someone other company does a run of old school legends.

Wasn't owen fantastic? Really wish he could've gotten a run with the title with Bret chasing him. I actually think owen was more talented all around than bret on the mic and in the ring (particularly blue blazer owen).

But what you brought up about bret is what makes me such a huge fan, he seemed to operate with old school integrity with a bunch of politicking sharks and guys who didnt view wrestling as an artform. The way he spoke about wrestling in his documentary just absolutely blew me away and made me a lifelong fan.

I love what extremely little I've seen from punk (I've only seen the big cena promo and a match with Rey mysterio). I need to sit down and watch a Bryan match as I hear he's fantastic. There's some guys in tna that I think are along the lines of these guys that bret has mentioned in interviews along with punk and Bryan: Samoa joe and aj styles. I'd love to see those guys in the wwe as I love their work from what I've seen on YouTube (such a gold mine for old school wrestling I might add!)

 

[karamazov80]

I think Owen was the better athlete in the ring, and had more range in terms of the personalities he could pull off. But I think Bret had more charisma than Owen, and in my opinion no one in the history of wrestling has been able to tell a story in the ring as well as Bret. That "King of Hearts" period was golden though, when he teamed with Bulldog. One of my favorite periods of wrestling.

Ultimately, I'm really thankful for that steroid scandal of the late '80s/early '90s, because if not for that Bret would never have been champ.

 

[tbay]

I think Owen was the better athlete in the ring, and had more range in terms of the personalities he could pull off. But I think Bret had more charisma than Owen, and in my opinion no one in the history of wrestling has been able to tell a story in the ring as well as Bret. That "King of Hearts" period was golden though, when he teamed with Bulldog. One of my favorite periods of wrestling.

Ultimately, I'm really thankful for that steroid scandal of the late '80s/early '90s, because if not for that Bret would never have been champ.

You're spot on about that, bret could really tell a story in the ring (I agree he was the best, particularly in getting underdog type sympathy) and definitely had the charisma edge.

I dont think he would have got a title run if it wasnt for the steriod scandal either. bret was the perfect guy to bring the focus back to in ring work. It was a shame that no one outside of roddy piper passed the torch to him, I think vince never fully believed in bret and was holding onto the thoughT That one of those guys (or someone in that mold like Luger) would bring him back to glory. I really wish hogan would have passed the torch to him in particular.

 

[karamazov80]

Yeah, I think you're right about that on some level. But on the other hand, I don't think Vince has/had much loyalty to anybody once they lost the ability to draw money to the extent that he thought they should. Backlund, Hogan, Macho Man, Flair, Bret, etc. He only has faith in people so long as they are maximizing his profits. Even guys like Austin and Rock probably stay in his good graces only because they can come back every now and again for another pay day. But he has had a thing for huge roided up freaks. Thus, Guerrero, Mysterio, Triple H, and countless others have realized the need to juice in order to succeed.

 

[tbay]

Mick foleys main event run really surprised me as he definitely didnt meet the roided up freak mold that vince pushes and is crazy for. Although vince definitely thinks of maximizing profits, I do think he's let his ego get in the way of good business on too many occasions. The dusty Rhodes wwf run was a clear example of this. I'll throw the goldberg and wcw invasion In the mix too. Vince has more loyalty to guys he made than those who came from other companies.

 

[Bardoon]

Nice sixth-scale figure tbay! That's well done!

You mentioned something that made me cringe. Hart showing up into WCW and declaring himself WWE Champ with a "Unification Match" was exactly why the Montreal Screw-Job happened. Vince wanted to completely avoid a fiasco like that. According to Hart, he didn't want to lose the title at Survivor Series but was willing to job the next night on RAW. If Vince kept his word and let Hart job the title the next night and somehow Hart showed up on Nitro with the WWE title as you said, then Hart would've looked like the bad guy and the disrespectful individual. The WWE/Hart relationship might NEVER be the way it was if that happened. That is a HUGE sign of disrespect.

While in the wrestling entertainment business, showing disrespect to rivals like that may have helped ratings, that would've been extremely disrespectful on Bret's part to do something like that. Don't get me wrong, Vince was completely disrespectful by screwing Bret. But Vince is also a businessman, and was worried Hart might do something rash like what Madusa did (She showed up on Monday Nitro and threw the WWE Women's Champion in the trash when she had just been Alundra Blayze in the WWE). And the relationship between Hart and McMahon was stressed at that point in the mid-90's. Both men had their reasons for doing what they did and unfortunately it didn't end the best way, but what's done is done and I'm glad everyone has moved forward.

Vince McMahon has also said it correctly, WCW did NOT know how to use Bret Hart. If they did, they may have crushed WWE longer than they did. But they made him this Hogan/nWo 'tweener and really had him show up here and there. Hart did have some great moments, like his match with Chris Benoit on the Owen Hart Tribute show and him using the steel plate to trick Goldberg, but those are nothing compared to his WWE days.