Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.
2016/08/31 16:24:45
Subject: The DakkaDakka Pro Wrestling Discussion Thread
Why? Because Stone Cold said so, obviously. And because I've often though that it's a thread that's been missing from Dakka. I know there's a few of us geeks who like a grapple.
Now, I'm not the biggest wrestling fan. I watched a fair bit of WWF between 97-2002ish, but very little otherwise. However, over the last couple of years I've found myself getting back to watching it again. And watching more. WWF/E sure has changed a lot since the Attitude Era, some things are worse, some things have gotten better, but I'm actually quite enjoying it.... for the most part.
I've been enjoying it all at least enough for me to have just purchased tickets to attend my first live pro wrestling show (ICW: Fear and Loathing IX).
I'm enjoying my WWE Network subscription. I'm enjoying how the Internet has allowed so much insight into this utterly fascinating world like I'd have never believed back in the day (hello Whatculture et al).
I'm enjoying it all. It's fun... again, for the most part.
So Dakka, let's talk WRASSLIN'...
Is WWE heading in the right direction? How has the success of NXT, the women's division, the new cruiserweights, and the recent decisions to put big titles on guys like Finn Ballor and KO affected your optimism for the future?
How is the recent brand split working out? (Smackdown certainly seems much better for it)
Have they made Lesnar completely unplayable? What's his WWE future like? (I know I look forward to his appearances less and less, and was disappointed in his Summerslam match)
What's working for WWE and what isn't? What changes would you like to see? (an hour shaved off Raw for starters?)
Any predictions for the rest of the year?
Who do you like?
Also, while WWE will usually dominate any pro wrestling discussion, they are not the only promotion out there.
Can the more knowledgeable Dakkites educate me?
What other promotions should be getting our attention at the moment? NJPW, Lucha Underground, PWG, RoH, TNA? I'm thoroughly unversed here. Who should we be looking out for, what matches should we be googling?
What's happening out there in the less televised world?
How easily do you keep up to date with it?
Who are the stars?
So, Lets have at it...
DING DING!!!
This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 2017/05/02 15:09:52
Eh, haven't been a big fan of wrestling since the Attitude Era. That being said, I have great memories of Stone Cold, The Rock, Kane, Undertaker, and Mankind.
Do you know, I am more embarrassed about liking wrestling than I ever was about playing with army manz.
Anyway.
AJ Styles is a huge talent for the WWE at the minute and I am surprised he hasn't been booked (yet) the way of many other not so huge rasslers.
He has had wins against Johnny Cena!!! Who would have thought it!
Finn Balor is another surprise, not to fans really, but surprising the way he has been given a push towards the new heavy weight title. Shame he got injured. Hope he is still in the mix when he is fit again. At 35 time is pressing and he deserves a few years at least earning mega bucks.
Kevin Owens is okay-ish. his Universal Title victory could be tarnished by HHH intervention but we can hope he has a decent run.
NJPW is always on my radar. They have had some tremendous contests recently. Kenny Omega winning the G1 Climax was pure wrestling gold.
And I have to say I have been LOVING Broken Matt Hardy over on TNA. His accent, his look, his OTT promos are fething brilliant. Jeff Hardy is also broken now, but his promos are poor and he plays for the crowd. Not a patch on His brother.
When I was in Afghanistan last year, I watched a ton of it. The Brigade CSM wouldn't let us have volume on in the TOC though, so we came down to inventing names for all of the wrestlers, and the like, cause none of us knew who was who. Was one of those past times that helped speed it all up.
My unit back home, we provide security for a number of public events in Nashville, such as hockey games, football, concerts, etc... I got to work at a WWE event held in Bridgestone Arena last winter. It was pretty cool.
djones520 wrote: I got to work at a WWE event held in Bridgestone Arena last winter. It was pretty cool.
I haven't followed wrestling in a long long time, but I've been to a few live WWE shows throughout the years.
It's amazing just how much more fake everything looks in person, but it's definitely one of those "go for the experience" kind of events. You know they are selling you a story, but the athletic stuff is still real. The atmosphere is great as well, and it's fun to be part of a 10,000+ crowd yelling at the bad guy.
djones520 wrote: I got to work at a WWE event held in Bridgestone Arena last winter. It was pretty cool.
I haven't followed wrestling in a long long time, but I've been to a few live WWE shows throughout the years.
It's amazing just how much more fake everything looks in person, but it's definitely one of those "go for the experience" kind of events. You know they are selling you a story, but the athletic stuff is still real. The atmosphere is great as well, and it's fun to be part of a 10,000+ crowd yelling at the bad guy.
I went to Capital Punishment in DC several years ago. Yeah, seeing it live, the fakeness of it comes through, the loss of announcers is a big loss, but still a great time because all the kids around you are having so much fun, how could you not join in? Plus they had some really cool pyro for the wrestler intros from backstage to the ring.
I'm glad I went at least once...always wanted to go since I was a big fan as a little kid (Hulk Hogan/Andres the Giant era...back then, wrestling was non-sexy and marketed to children mostly)
Mr. Burning wrote:Do you know, I am more embarrassed about liking wrestling than I ever was about playing with army manz.
Anyway.
AJ Styles is a huge talent for the WWE at the minute and I am surprised he hasn't been booked (yet) the way of many other not so huge rasslers.
He has had wins against Johnny Cena!!! Who would have thought it!
He's had some great matches since coming to WWE. Definitely a talent. This weird new persona they've given him on Smackdown this weeks could be fun. I think he'll have the belt off ambrose before too long.
Finn Balor is another surprise, not to fans really, but surprising the way he has been given a push towards the new heavy weight title. Shame he got injured. Hope he is still in the mix when he is fit again. At 35 time is pressing and he deserves a few years at least earning mega bucks.
His big push was a surprise. Would have been interesting to see how they booked his title run. I'm not his biggest fan but I could watch that entrance all day long. Easily the best WWE have had for a good long while (stand fast Taker). If they manage to keep his return under wraps and surprise people with it, it'll be off the charts.
Kevin Owens is okay-ish. his Universal Title victory could be tarnished by HHH intervention but we can hope he has a decent run.
See, I love Kevin Owens. I think he has a good repertoire of moves, he's strong, good finisher, can take a good bump (see what Sami Zayn has done to him with ladders recently) and his chat is fantastic. On the mic he's great, but even off the mic and in and around the ring, he's always talking, taking the piss, just generally playing his character really, really well. His small mannerisms all contribute as well. The very start of the fatal four way on Raw this week is a perfect example - instantly rolling out the ring, leans on the barrier next to Stephanie and just kinda shrugs at her.
Really like the guy. His photo from the side of Enzo's hospital bed makes it seem like he might be quite a good dude as well. Perhaps shaking Kayfabe a little, but it was nice to see.
Spoiler:
Hope his title reign doesn't change him too much, but I think he'll do OK playing that kinda cowardly heel Champ. Not too unlike Rollins actually. Hopefully he'll still manage a couple of big clean wins though.
NJPW is always on my radar. They have had some tremendous contests recently. Kenny Omega winning the G1 Climax was pure wrestling gold.
Do you manage to watch their events live (on TV)? How easy do you find it is to follow? Is the language barrier fairly easy to get passed? Do they have English speaking announcers? The little I've heard about it, it's always appeared very highly regarded.
And I have to say I have been LOVING Broken Matt Hardy over on TNA. His accent, his look, his OTT promos are fething brilliant. Jeff Hardy is also broken now, but his promos are poor and he plays for the crowd. Not a patch on His brother.
I don't watch TNA but I did see the Final Deletion thing.... Bonkers
And I have started getting into WCPW.
How are you finding it? I do like those chaps (Blampied is a bit of a boardgamer too I think), but I've not caught any of their WCPW shows.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2016/09/02 14:40:50
NJPW have english speaking commentators - think for international broadcasts. I usually catch up on youtube but I do have a buddy who sends me PPVs and events.
It's generally pretty easy to follow though, you'll just shout 'wow' 'ouch' and 'jesus' a lot as you see a heck of a lot of stiff, strong wrestling.
WCPW is a mixed bag, Blampied was born a heel! The wrestling is very good they havea good mix of wrestler types. I'll probably be heading to a taped event when I can get my buddies together.
Raw is a 3 hour show show so I am not sure how these midgets will put on a five star classic in between 30 minute promos from Steph and Mick, Cesaro and Shamus talking up their best of 7 series (shudder) and Rollins breaking another superstar!
Seriously though the cruiserweights are fething great but I'm not sure how the wwe will properly handle them. They tell their stories in the ring and really need time to deliver.
I'm hoping that they just get a 30-40 minute slot every Monday night, 2 or 3 matches.
Taking 30 minutes of gak out (cesaro uppercuts, Roman talking and the like) and replacing with 30 minutes of Cruiserweight will help the overall quality heaps.
You're right though, as long as they're handled well.... i.e. hardly handled at all.
I've been watching wrestling for...WAY too many years - waxing and waning through the...decades!
I'm a big fan of Finn Balor and was disappointed that he ended up getting injured and had to relinquish the title... but yes, KO will make a fine Champion...for now!
Loving AJ's run over on Smackdown too, and hope he keeps that winning streak over Cena going.
TNA is hard to get through most days, but the over the top bat gak crazy Hardy stuff is hilarious to watch.
ROH and NJPW are only on sporadically for me, and seem to be showing stuff quite a bit 'behind the times' at that.
Still, lots to watch these days, lots of variety - good times, I think?
I think good times ahead. Again, a lot of this is all very new to me but I'm enjoying it all thoroughly and there's a lot of encouraging things going on, and it's all so accessible now. Outside of WWE there seems to be a bit of nice cross promotional support going on and the scene in the UK is exciting.
Like you say, lots to watch. And lots of quality. There seems to be a lot more emphasis on technical ability these days, which I like... always room for the monsters mind you.
Jehan-reznor wrote: I watch WWE and went to a few NJPW and Dragon's gate shows, not a fan of the current "product" too many finishers
Totally agree with this. So many finishers just don't have the impact they should because people keep kicking out of them. Don't get me wrong, when Kane kicked out of the tombstone I lost my gak. It was incredible. But now it's to be expected at all times. I think it's a shame.
I wonder how much control wrestlers (particularly in WWE) have over the protection of their finishers.
Apparently Scott Hall once said something along the lines of "if it's not the finish, I'm not using my finisher."
Mr Burning, did you get to see Refuse to Lose? I didn't order it but it seems a lot of people had issues with the live stream?
I'm keen to know how Kurt Angle looked.
Presumably because of his appearance on RtL, whatculture have been doing a few wee articles on him recently....
I went back and watched his match with Benoit at RR 2003 again. It truly was a thing of beauty. Kurt Angle might just be my favourite ever. Certainly very close. Awesome music helps too.
Also watched his KotR Street fight with Shane McMahon last night.
Also, anyone particularly looking forward to No Mercy this weekend? Can't say that I am. The Championship triple threat could be very good. Outside of that, I'm not too excited by the rest of the card. Interested to see if Miz and Dolph can put on a decent match.
Thoughts?
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2016/10/08 22:35:25
Miz/Dolph should be really good - and I'm hoping the Miz wins and 'retires' (i.e., make Dolph go away for a bit until he shows up on RAW in a few months time) Dolph.
And AJ has been killing it since signing with the WWE, so that match should be great too - provided he retains/Cena does NOT win!
I don't think anything can compare to the 80's style wrestling promos where guys like Hulk or Macho Man are shouting and flexing like mad while frothing at the mouth from a coke induced mania.
You just don't get those type of moments anymore. Love the Rock and always happy when he still makes the rare guest appearance.
Old school wrestling fans should check out "The Sheik" awesome film although a bit sad. The Resurrection of Jake the Snake also shares a lot of common ground.
Paulson Games parts are now at:
www.RedDogMinis.com
alanmckenzie wrote: Mr Burning, did you get to see Refuse to Lose? I didn't order it but it seems a lot of people had issues with the live stream?
I'm keen to know how Kurt Angle looked.
Presumably because of his appearance on RtL, whatculture have been doing a few wee articles on him recently....
I went back and watched his match with Benoit at RR 2003 again. It truly was a thing of beauty. Kurt Angle might just be my favourite ever. Certainly very close. Awesome music helps too.
Also watched his KotR Street fight with Shane McMahon last night.
Also, anyone particularly looking forward to No Mercy this weekend? Can't say that I am. The Championship triple threat could be very good. Outside of that, I'm not too excited by the rest of the card. Interested to see if Miz and Dolph can put on a decent match.
Thoughts?
Kurt Angle is one of the very best to ever grace a wrestling ring. The WCPW top 10 shows exactly why. Angle vs Benoit RR 2003 is one of my favourite WWE/WWF matches. Joining TNA could have been a death sentence for him but he continued to shine and have awesome matches. Awesomes matches inspite of some shoddy booking and creative writing.
I did not get Refuse to Loose. To be honest I thought I had ordered it, I got ahead of myself there....I'll blame my blank screen on the technical difficulties rather than my mistake.
And since videos are the theme du jour of this thread heres Corporate Austin and Vince McMahon...The start of some beautiful money making.