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Post by celtics543 on Dec 30, 2015 11:54:01 GMT -5
Went to a house show, pretty sure it was in 2009 or 2010, in Maine. The only time they ever came to Portland. Didn't draw real well but it was entertaining. Had a really good Kurt Angle vs Desmond Wolfe match.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 30, 2015 11:25:37 GMT -5
I watched very little of the original ECW because I was young then, only 13 when it went out of business. It's tough to judge it though right now because you aren't watching it in the 90's. That was a completely different era and a completely different period in time. The world as a whole was more edgy and anti-authority. A hardcore, blood-thirsty, wrestling organization was just what the doctor ordered.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 21, 2015 6:40:29 GMT -5
Not to say that this story is true, but we keep bringing up CM Punk as never talking bad about Cena, which is great but maybe it's because Punk was a top guy. Sure Cena apologized to Edge and Jericho, two guys who have been with the company longer and are just as high on the card as Cena is, but how does he treat the lower card guys? I'm not saying he treats them poorly but he wouldn't be the first guy to get along with the main event talent and crap all over the undercard guys. Something about his characters smug personality just hits me wrong and makes me think he could be a huge dick to some of the underneath guys, not to mention that some of the stories about things he's done in his personal life haven't been very moral or upstanding.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 14, 2015 21:55:27 GMT -5
Wait...it's not 1997...then why have we been pretending it is since 2005?
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 13, 2015 14:10:18 GMT -5
I'm convinced that 98% of the problem is the commentary. JBL, King, and Cole don't put anyone over and actually take away from the overness of people. JR, prime King, McMahon, Monsoon, Ventura, Heenan, Schiavone, all those guys PUT OVER the talent that was in the ring. Now they mock the guys and make them look stupid, which is killing them. The commentators are the voice that fans here more than any other and if they act like what's happening isn't a big deal or they poo poo it then so will the fans. Michael Cole's snide remarks might be funny for the boys but they're absolutely killing any momentum a guy gets. The only people they treat as important are the upper card guys, which buries the mid card and therefore fans are conditioned to believe mid card guys suck and don't buy them as main venters when they move up.
Fix the commentary and that will fix most of what's wrong.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 13, 2015 13:10:59 GMT -5
Jerry Lawler adapted well. Say what you want about his commentary now but he went from one of the top wrestlers in the 70's and 80's to the top color commentator in wrestling for the attitude era.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 11, 2015 11:37:39 GMT -5
I hope it's the beginning of a time where Brock wins EVERY mens singles title in the WWE, and becomes the actual final boss of the company. He can do what Punk should've done and take them all away while the rest of the company tries to band together to take them back. Just to see Brock come out with the World Heavyweight, IC, and US titles all over his shoulder and around his waist would be awesome.
And I think he should be the face in this feud with the company. He's beaten everyone and then they build up a challenger to try and take one of the belts off of him, each time the challenger has the full backing of the WWE superstars and they cheat for him but it never works. This goes on for months until Brock starts turning heel by being cocky and refusing to show up more and more, talking in the media about how he's leaving wrestling for good soon. Then build up that big babyface to beat him in the middle of the ring and finally take one of the titles. It would put someone over huge to be the first chink in the armor.
Of course knowing WWE Cena would beat Brock for all three and they'd treat him like the greatest thing ever.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 8, 2015 10:22:39 GMT -5
Much like the Undertaker's dive over the top ropes I only need to see this a couple times a year. Otherwise it's going to get really watered down. Much unlike the Undertaker's dive over the top rope, this has zero grace to it.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 7, 2015 18:24:57 GMT -5
What they would need is to set up a profit sharing system with merchandise. The heel needs some incentive so they should take the feud and the time frame and split the merch money from that time. For instance if Cena is feuding with Jericho, presumably so many Cena shirts are being sold because they want to see him beat Jericho, therefore Jericho is actually somewhat responsible for those sales. Him and Cena should split that money.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 6, 2015 15:31:40 GMT -5
I'm not sure what they'll do but it'll definitely be decided with a fatal four way Wrestlemania main event with Shane in one corner, Steph in one corner, Linda in one corner, and HHH in one corner.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 4, 2015 6:48:11 GMT -5
First, Cena isn't in the same category as Hogan/Austin/Rock. He isn' the kind of cross over star that they were and still are. Ask random people on the street who those four are and the one that will get recognized the least is definitely Cena.
Moving on from that point, I don't think it's Vince's fault entirely that we haven't had a huge star with cross over appeal since Rock. It's rare and since the company has gone public they can't do some of the stuff they used to do. Now, instead of just pleasing the fans they have to please Mattel, USA network, Shareholders, Sponsors, and all kinds of other management people. It's a tough road to navigate. What is Vince's fault is the start/stop pushes, the terrible creative decisions, and the stubbornness to not change direction no matter what the crowd says.
Reigns isn't getting to the point of Rock/Austin/Hogan or even Cena. The only guy in the last ten years with that chance was Bryan and instead of strapping the rocket ship to his back they cut him off at the knees and then he got hurt and now he'll probably never wrestle again. Don't get me wrong, Wrestlemania 30 was incredible for him but then he got a feud with Kane right after...not the follow up anyone deserves.
Currently the problem is that they have so many great wrestlers and zero great characters. Steve Austin was a great wrestler but nobody cared to watch him as the Ringmaster, when he became Stone Cold and they defined his character better he became a huge star. HHH is a great wrestler but no one cared when he was Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Connecticut blue blood, he only started to catch on when he became DX HHH. The characters just aren't defined enough and the storylines are almost nonexistent. The wrestlers need reasons to feud and creative gives them nothing beyond "I don't like this person" as a reason. We need more backstage segments or pre-tapes that give a reason for guys to be feuding. Feuds over a belt are easy but the part they're missing from the Attitude Era is that mid card guys got a storyline. Now they just trade wins for no rhyme or reason.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 3, 2015 9:04:36 GMT -5
If they stopped running ECW tribute shows and just started an ECW-esque brand for themselves I think they'd make it. No one is beating WWE at what they do, family friendly wrestling entertainment, so don't even try. TNA was at its best when they were an alternative, with the x-division stuff. They need to bring that back. Bring in guys no one has ever heard of, along with one veteran guy that can still go and model it around the original ECW. WWE has the best technical wrestlers in the world for the most part but TNA could throw the violence up a ton, bring blood back, and just do all the crazy stuff that worked for ECW that WWE won't do anymore.
They can also bring back some of what Memphis used to do with the storyline heavy wrestling because that would take the focus away from the fact that most of the guys they can afford can't really work from a technical standpoint. I think the key is to splurge on good commentators though. As we've seen, JR, Gorilla, Ventura, King (in his prime), Gordon Solie, and guys like that could get anyone over. Currently, Cole, JBL, Saxon, King, take guys that are great in the ring and on the mic and actually make them less over than they would be without any commentary at all.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 2, 2015 9:14:00 GMT -5
It's ironic that if you watch the downfall of WCW dvd you could replace WCW with WWE for most of the things that killed it and have it be true now. My favorite line is JR saying that the only guy that got a break in the entire run was Bill Goldberg. Well I'm looking at the WWE from 2005 - now, ten full years, which is about 6 years longer than WCW's lucrative run and literally no one has gotten a huge break. Nobody has reached the level Bill Goldberg was at in 1998 and I'm not even sure I'd say anyone has reached the level Booker T or Scott Steiner were at in 2000. Off the top of my head I can't think of a guy who's gotten the big push and gotten over since Cena. They've had guys that got one of the two, either a huge push or gotten over on their own and then been cut off at the knees, but no one who has gotten both.
Ten years from now am I going to be watching a dvd about the death of WWE and some talking head is going to say, "In that whole run during the Cena era, only one guy ever got over as a star and that was Daniel Bryan...and even then they tried to kill him off."
It's not hard to see that WWE is extremely hypocritical about everything they say about WCW and what killed it. It's a check list of everything they're doing now. Dumb storylines, no one gets pushed, relying on the established stars for too long, title belts don't mean anything, mid card is stuck there forever, bad business decisions, it's going to kill them too. It won't be as fast because there isn't another company breathing down their necks but mainstream pro wrestling isn't that popular right now and the ratings are reflecting that. It needs a breath of fresh air and for the older guys to get out of the way. I don't understand Vince, he did such a good job pushing Hogan in the 80's and putting older guys out to pasture but it seems like he just doesn't have it in him anymore. Cena, Taker, Orton, Brock, HHH, Stephanie, Dudleyz, those are all characters that don't need to be on tv. it's hard to take a top star and move them down the ladder after being on top so long, it would be better just to take them off entirely and go with some new guys. Have the old hands put over the new generation, like Bret did for Austin and Rock did for Brock.
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Post by celtics543 on Dec 1, 2015 6:25:32 GMT -5
Bring Carlito back to be their mouthpiece and occasional tag partner. They can work but neither have the mic skills to get themselves over.
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Post by celtics543 on Nov 30, 2015 10:14:36 GMT -5
I can appreciate it from an acting standpoint, because it takes some good devotion to the character and a good amount of improv to be in-character and not have anything written whatsoever. But the actual benefits of it aren't as great as it was. It's why I wish the WWE wouldn't pull kayfabe at all during their press conferences/Wrestlemania announcements. At the very least, either do it at all times or don't do it at all. Don't be wishy-washy about it. And that goes for both performers and the WWE itself when it does those press conferences. Tell them to either be kayfabe or be legit about how excited you are for Wrestlemania in [X], put over the city and what it's known for, put over the stadium and fanbase in the area, etc. and then go on. In general I don't see a benefit to ever doing it these days. Everyone watching knows what's on TV isn't real, and it's not like, say, after Breaking Bad ended Bryan Cranston went into hiding to help sell the show's ending. That's true but it's also true that he wasn't trying to sell a ppv with the ending of Breaking Bad. I think kayfabe is at least important for little kids because when it comes right down to it, without the believability we're really just watching jacked up oily guys pretend wrestle in their underwear. I don't mind hindsight not being in kayfabe, like I enjoy hearing about how much Bret Hart and Steve Austin liked working together now but if in 1997 they had been doing interviews and Austin had been talking about how awesome it was to be working with a guy like Bret it really would've dampened the feud.
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Post by celtics543 on Nov 30, 2015 6:29:55 GMT -5
Arn Anderson. It seems that every documentary he's in he always kind of mixes up kayfabe with real life. I think it was the horsemen doc where he talked about breaking Dusty's leg but made it sound like they really did it and he felt bad about it but it had to be done.
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Post by celtics543 on Nov 25, 2015 17:31:08 GMT -5
Attitude Era booking is the current booking with less cussing, partial nudity, stunts, and excessive violence. The show is formatted the same way. Characters less bawdy but no real change. Only real difference is a majority of the matches last longer than 3 minutes. Completely disagree. Perhaps the main event is booked the same way, with heel authority figures and the like but the midcard is WAY worse today. Look at the reactions that guys like Val Venis, D'Lo Brown, Ken Shamrock, and those guys got compared to any of the mid card guys today. Attitude era booking would be nice because it would give the mid card guys something to do rather than just trade wins and tread water. I disagree with the constant trading of titles but give us stories, give us reasons that guys are feuding. I'm sick of having two guys wrestle for no reason or having a feud for no reason. Most feuds now are only explained if they're main event feuds and even those are just usually, because the heel doesn't like the babyface and the babyface is upset because the heel attacked him. Heels never win clean so there aren't any strong heels to compete with the top babyfaces and it's killing the business. In short, give the mid card something to do and write better stories for all levels. Give some back story on the characters instead of just backstory on the real person. It worked for Mick Foley but now you have 90% of the roster whose backstory is just that they were big fans as little kids and now they're living out a dream. If one guy has that backstory it's fine, but we need some variety. I hate to say it but a little bit of kayfabe would be nice once in a while.
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Post by celtics543 on Nov 24, 2015 6:49:03 GMT -5
Steve Austin is never wrestling again. That said, I'd love to see him and Punk go 1 on 1 at Wrestlemania. Fortunately, Steve's health seems to have improved greatly since hanging up the tights in 2003 but having another match is still probably not in the cards, his neck injury was pretty bad and when he got out he had to get out.
The one thing that I don't want to happen is for him to have another match just for the sake of having another match. I'm a huge Bret Hart fan but his match with Vince at Wrestlemania was just sad. A guy who prided himself on his ability to work an incredible match went out there as a shell of his former self and had perhaps the most boring match in the history of Wrestlemania, after being part of so many classics. I don't need to see Austin do the same thing.
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Post by celtics543 on Nov 23, 2015 14:03:01 GMT -5
The nice part is that because of the body suit and paint you really can't tell how old he is. He gets the nostalgia pops from long time fans but newer fans can look at him and not be able to tell that he's older because it's tough to judge his age based on just looking at him.
He fits the veteran that can still go mold while also being somewhat fresh for the newer fans. Basically he's like Taker but doesn't look old as dirt because of the makeup and body suit.
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Post by celtics543 on Nov 23, 2015 6:21:47 GMT -5
This won't get him over, and it really isn't getting Sheamus over as a heel either. We've seen guys, both heels and faces, cash in MITB right after matches or beatdowns so often that it's not considered sneaky or underhanded anymore, it's just accepted as the smart way to do it. Reigns looks dumb because he didn't see it coming and Sheamus is still boring so that doesn't help.
I'm not sure anyone knows what they're doing. Reigns got booed for just about that entire match and has been getting booed consistently by many crowds, not all but many, throughout the year. Either turn the guy face or move him down the card until he's ready. Fans have changed over the years to where instead of just blindly cheering babyfaces and booing heels they're going to cheer for the guy they want to succeed, and be damned whether he's face or a heel.
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