Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

DECEMBER 2015 WRESTLING DISCUSSION THREAD


RIPPA

Recommended Posts

And for those that keep harping on and on about a return to the TV-14/Attitude type of content, next week's Slammy Awards presented by "Coca-Cola" is probably the prime "Exhibit A" of the end game of the PG era. That has to be the biggest brand-name sponsor they've had for anything since probably the Hulk Hogan days.

 

Here's the thing that everyone consistently misses regarding the Attitude era, and this is per Vince McMahon himself:

 

 

People remember the Attitude era for shit like Mae Young giving birth to a hand, excessive profanity, tons of blood, etc. When I watch that video it makes me realize that underneath it all, that's what the Attitude era was. It was programming that didn't insult your intelligence, punish you for who you liked or disliked, and was a pivot away from the cartoonish bullshit that plagued the show at the time.

 

Vince LOVES to point out how wrestling is a cyclical business. Can we can to the part of the cycle where we're not insulted or punished anymore?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That "shades of grey" Attitude Era video was just brand positioning and salesmanship.  They still had faces and heels and did a ton of shit to insult everyone's intelligence.  It was just an exercise in telling the people watching that they were smarter, more discerning fans than those who watch the competition.  It's a great way to sell a product, nothing more.

 

What do people want when they pine for the "Attitude Era?"  What exactly do you want to make a comeback?  Blood?  Tits?  "Edgy" storylines?  Rampant misogyny?  Beaver Clevage or the JOB Squad?  The Attitude Era wasn't good because of that shit.  The good stuff about that era was the wrestlers who became legends like Austin, Rock, Foley, Undertaker.  They're not coming back (well, except Taker) and making your booking more Russoriffic won't make things better.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The AE was all about giving new guys a shot. Vince's back was up against the wall he lost most of his big names to WCW so he had to give Austin, Rock, HHH, Folley etc the ball. Now they seem to be running the read option where the stick the ball in the guys gut, and pull it back at the last second to hand it back to Cena or Taker. Just go with the young wrestlers and give them real pushes and make real stars that's all most of us are asking for. Having some blood would be nice, but I could do without a lot of the stuff that made the AE famous. What I can't do without is compelling characters, decent storylines, and booking that makes real stars.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Is it just me, or does Rusev seem to be much taller in this video than he is now?

 

He's wearing wrestling boots with 1.5"-2" lifts, rather than wrestling shoes or barefoot. And the only other guy in that video that would be considered tall is Eric Watts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing I miss most about the attitude era is Nitro.

Jokes aside, the main thing I really do miss about that time is the faster pacing. Some called it Crash TV, but it really made you feel like you absolutely could not miss one second of the program.

Last night, from the opening promo to the ending of the opening match was 40 minutes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The AE was all about giving new guys a shot. Vince's back was up against the wall he lost most of his big names to WCW so he had to give Austin, Rock, HHH, Folley etc the ball. Now they seem to be running the read option where the stick the ball in the guys gut, and pull it back at the last second to hand it back to Cena or Taker. Just go with the young wrestlers and give them real pushes and make real stars that's all most of us are asking for. Having some blood would be nice, but I could do without a lot of the stuff that made the AE famous. What I can't do without is compelling characters, decent storylines, and booking that makes real stars.

 

 

Right, so the real rallying cry should be "make new stars," not "bring back Attitude!" 

 

It's fun to imagine 2015 Vince running late 90s WWF.  None of the guys mentioned above would have been stars.

 

2015 Vince would have pushed Blue Chipper Rocky Maivia down our throats instead of pulling back the push and retooling when fans turned on him out of the gate.  Rocky would be in the same shitty spot Roman is in now.  He wouldn't have done anything with Austin; 2015 Vince has no time for guys who get over organically.  Austin would be Ambrose.  Mick Foley was ugly and out of shape.  He wouldn't have gotten past the midcard, a la Kevin Owens.  Taker would still just be a goofy supernatural character with zero depth, like Wyatt.

 

Late 90's Vince was sparked by competition and, as you said, the loss of his top guys.  2015 Vince has gotten fat and lazy (metaphorically).

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the fact they shifted away from the Hogan model for their top face, at a time when classic good guys were at a low in culture as a whole (maybe because of a strong economy), and had their anti-hero fight the powers that be was what made the attitude era so great. Yeah, they appealed to teens and young men with the swears and tittayz, but that was all secondary. Once again, people are jaded with the Hogan shiny goody two shoes face and want something else. They wanted Bryan because he was human: flawed, vulnerable, but most importantly authentic and organic. Sami Zayn is the closest we will get to that now. But they're so myopic with this shitty Reigns push that is bound to fail unless he's the heel foil for somebody like Zayn or Bryan. Ambrose could work if they adjusted his character a bit too and he improved in the ring (again I think a lot of his negatives are on WWE because I remember how awesome he was in FCW). They want to brand him as a loose cannon weirdo but he's way too cutesy, overscripted, and watered down for that to fully work.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing I miss most about the attitude era is Nitro.

A show chock full of good to great wrestlers, 90% of whom get little or no chance to get over, stop/start angles and pushes that seem deliberately designed to take the crowd out of the action, an inability to focus as a promotion on more than one guy, and announcers who squabble and jabber about anything other than the match they're watching? Yeah, I can see why you'd miss that...

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read The Death of WCW for the first time during this past summer and it was shocking how many parallels there were between WCW and current day WWE. Just nowhere else to go for mainstream wrestling, other than to not watch at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing I miss most about the attitude era is Nitro.

A show chock full of good to great wrestlers, 90% of whom get little or no chance to get over, stop/start angles and pushes that seem deliberately designed to take the crowd out of the action, an inability to focus as a promotion on more than one guy, and announcers who squabble and jabber about anything other than the match they're watching? Yeah, I can see why you'd miss that...

Hmmm...sounds familiar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Is it just me, or does Rusev seem to be much taller in this video than he is now?

 

He's wearing wrestling boots with 1.5"-2" lifts, rather than wrestling shoes or barefoot. And the only other guy in that video that would be considered tall is Eric Watts.

 

 

Sure, but even in the shots when he's by himself he looks taller.  I guess he wasn't as wide back then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

The thing I miss most about the attitude era is Nitro.

A show chock full of good to great wrestlers, 90% of whom get little or no chance to get over, stop/start angles and pushes that seem deliberately designed to take the crowd out of the action, an inability to focus as a promotion on more than one guy, and announcers who squabble and jabber about anything other than the match they're watching? Yeah, I can see why you'd miss that...

 

Take Hogan out of the equation and you'd probably fix the bold part. Wasn't there a better presentation when WCW knew Hogan was going to be gone for awhile?  Also didn't most of the stuff on the pre-98 Nitros have less issues with stop/start angles and pushes that annoyed the crowds? Could be nostalgia that I'm forgetting things. But I'd like to think pre-Hogan WCW booking with Nitro's formula would have been the best  but who knows if Turner would've approved Nitro if Bischoff failed to sign Hogan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing that I miss most from the attitude era is the crowd heat, which was the product of giving the fans a reason to care about people up and down the card. I'll take maybe all but the bottom 5% of attitude angles over the current landscape where all but like 3 guys are interchangable and no one has any reason to get invested in anyone because the end game is always "will lose to Cena or a part-timer."

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...