fg
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Gaming
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Post by fg on Mar 22, 2023 18:57:19 GMT -5
I always though the "down period" was more 93-96 (early to mid 96, maybe). Were they really down in 90-92 as well? I always thought the early 90s started the down period with Ultimate Warrior not meeting expectations as Hogan's successor and Wrestlemania VII not selling out the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that they had to relocate to a smaller venue where they had trouble filling THAT arena as well. Though they did sell out Indianapolis's Hoosier Dome the following Wrestlemania, so who knows? I do think it's safe to say WWF wasn't AS popular as they were in the 1980s, but was in better shape than say post-Wrestlemania VIII to late 1997/early 1998. They didn’t really sell out WM8. WM8 was heavily padded by free tickets because of low ticket sales. So they gave away free tickets to get a respectable crowd for TV.
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Post by Feyrhausen on Mar 22, 2023 19:15:46 GMT -5
I think what gets lost in Bret leaving is that even in 97 Vince had eyes on taking the company public, and he didn't want a contract like that on the books. He paid Tyson like $3 million. He had the cash, if he really wanted to, he just chose Shawn over Bret, for whatever reason, then 6 months later, Shawn was gone too, except Shawn still had his deal. Yep. If Brets deal had still been a million a year but for 3-5 then Vince could have managed it. It was the 20 year term that scares investors.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Mar 22, 2023 19:27:01 GMT -5
I've always considered WrestleMania 8 as the last real golden era show.
By Survivor Series of that year, the vibe of the company was starting to feel much different.
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Cranjis McBasketball
Crow T. Robot
Knew what the hell that thing was supposed to be
Peace Love and Nothing But
Posts: 41,921
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball on Mar 22, 2023 19:31:00 GMT -5
He paid Tyson like $3 million. He had the cash, if he really wanted to, he just chose Shawn over Bret, for whatever reason, then 6 months later, Shawn was gone too, except Shawn still had his deal. Yep. If Brets deal had still been a million a year but for 3-5 then Vince could have managed it. It was the 20 year term that scares investors. Bret’s actual money was nothing though. Bret signed a shit deal, Vince didn’t. Bret took the money over 20 years with Vince as WCW offered in 3.
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Post by BorneAgain on Mar 22, 2023 20:23:08 GMT -5
Something that didn't really help is how out of the zeitgeist the company was for the first half of the 90s. You look at lot of the broader popular culture from the time period and a great deal of the WWF from the time just felt out of touch at best and downright uncool at worst.
A lot of elements from ECW haven't aged well, but its cult popularity makes complete sense when recalling how dorky WWF was at that point.
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Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby
Grimlock
Blanket burrito season is back, and I never left the blankets
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Post by Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby on Mar 22, 2023 20:31:24 GMT -5
Something that didn't really help is how out of the zeitgeist the company was for the first half of the 90s. You look at lot of the broader popular culture from the time period and a great deal of the WWF from the time just felt out of touch at best and downright uncool at worst. A lot of elements from ECW haven't aged well, but its cult popularity makes complete sense when recalling how dorky WWF was at that point. This is really relevant, and also a reason I roll my eyes at any argument that boils down to "Wrestling was bigger in the 80's, so all wrestling should be like the 80's." Times change, and no approach works forever. The current Transformers cartoon will never do the numbers or have the cultural relevance that the original cartoon did; but the answer isn't to just re-run the G1 cartoon, y'know? They in fact tried that in the early 90's and it didn't go over well.
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Post by The Dark Order Inferno on Mar 23, 2023 4:44:39 GMT -5
Something that didn't really help is how out of the zeitgeist the company was for the first half of the 90s. You look at lot of the broader popular culture from the time period and a great deal of the WWF from the time just felt out of touch at best and downright uncool at worst. A lot of elements from ECW haven't aged well, but its cult popularity makes complete sense when recalling how dorky WWF was at that point. The dated production didn't help either, even without the booking the majority of what people saw felt cheesy and cheap, rather than gritty and underground like ECW, and when Nitro came along it looked ten years behind the time, with coloured lights and pale, flabby jobbers getting mushed for an hour, with a main eventer vs a JTTS as the main event.
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Post by Milkman Norm on Mar 24, 2023 13:43:45 GMT -5
Something that didn't really help is how out of the zeitgeist the company was for the first half of the 90s. You look at lot of the broader popular culture from the time period and a great deal of the WWF from the time just felt out of touch at best and downright uncool at worst. A lot of elements from ECW haven't aged well, but its cult popularity makes complete sense when recalling how dorky WWF was at that point. The dated production didn't help either, even without the booking the majority of what people saw felt cheesy and cheap, rather than gritty and underground like ECW, and when Nitro came along it looked ten years behind the time, with coloured lights and pale, flabby jobbers getting mushed for an hour, with a main eventer vs a JTTS as the main event. You mean people didn't care about the struggles of fake garbage men as they fought with fake pig farmers?
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