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MAY 2016 WRESTLING DISCUSSION THREAD


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It's crazy to me to think of an 11 year old kid starting to watch wrestling today. To that kid who is 11 and watching today's product, the Attitude Era is farther away to him as the Bruno Sammartino Era was to me when I first started watching in the mid-80s. Those Bruno and other early 70's matches seemed ancient to me when they'd pop up on the occasional Coliseum Videos.

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That would mean that Ric Flair is the Harley Race of this era. Crazy former wrestler/champion that just speaks borderline craziness.

I'll never forget Harley Race talking down to Ron Simmons leading up to Simmons vs Vader. So incredibly racist.

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2 hours ago, Wyld Samurai said:

That would mean that Ric Flair is the Harley Race of this era. Crazy former wrestler/champion that just speaks borderline craziness.

I'll never forget Harley Race talking down to Ron Simmons leading up to Simmons vs Vader. So incredibly racist.

Harley may be borderline crazy. Ric blew past borderline a long, long time ago. He's fully certified bat shit insane. 

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18 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Harley may be borderline crazy. Ric blew past borderline a long, long time ago. He's fully certified bat shit insane. 

Well, of course.  Isn't that why he spent time in the insane asylum?

Spoiler

It's still real to me!!!!

 

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5 hours ago, MonteCarl said:

It's crazy to me to think of an 11 year old kid starting to watch wrestling today. To that kid who is 11 and watching today's product, the Attitude Era is farther away to him as the Bruno Sammartino Era was to me when I first started watching in the mid-80s. Those Bruno and other early 70's matches seemed ancient to me when they'd pop up on the occasional Coliseum Videos.

My oldest 2 kids are 11 and 10.  My 10-year-old LOVES WWE.  After WWE 2k15 (I think that was the one with the Attitude Era stuff), he started watching a few of the matches from that time on the Network.  I don't know how many times he told ne how different it seemed, but that they swore so much it made it seem like no big deal.  I guess in a way the occasional profanity in the PG era puts more heat on a feud like blood did back in the day, at least from a kid's perspective.

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12 hours ago, Patrick B. said:

One of my local indies brings in the midgets on a semi-regular basis, even though Beautiful Bobby Dean and Little Kato do essentially the same match every time.  The fans eat it up.

Good for business and a fraction of the cost.

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16 hours ago, Patrick B. said:

One of my local indies brings in the midgets on a semi-regular basis, even though Beautiful Bobby Dean and Little Kato do essentially the same match every time.  The fans eat it up.

I read that as "Beautiful Bobby Eaton" and now I really want to see Eaton work a midget.

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I'm shocked that HASN'T happened yet.

One of the local rasslin groups had matches at the St. Louis Cinco De Mayo Festival...they wrapped up RIGHT before it started pouring down rain.  Fastest ring breakdown I'd ever seen that didn't involve the cops being called and Gary Jay asking if I could give him a ride home.

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19 hours ago, MonteCarl said:

It's crazy to me to think of an 11 year old kid starting to watch wrestling today. To that kid who is 11 and watching today's product, the Attitude Era is farther away to him as the Bruno Sammartino Era was to me when I first started watching in the mid-80s. Those Bruno and other early 70's matches seemed ancient to me when they'd pop up on the occasional Coliseum Videos.

That's what really gets me.  I started watching in 1985 and even the wrestling 10 years ago at that time felt ancient.  Hell, watching Coliseum's "Best of the WWF" tapes (fuck yeah I said TAPES), when they'd show a match that was even 5 years old, felt completely alien. 

Considering that, it's sad to see them fall back on draws from 20 years ago nowadays.  Imagine if they brought in guys from 1965 to pop an audience for Mania 1.  Or just consider, no way in hell Vince would be bringing back Bruno to be a draw at, say, Mania 4.  Yeah, they'd put him and old stars in undercard spots like Bruno and Morales in the Mania 2 battle royal but I remember, in the buildup to it, that their presence wasn't noted as a huge draw.  

I'm hoping they really do commit to this "New Era" but I get the feeling they'll be calling the stars of the late 90s as soon as Mania rolls around again.

 

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1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

That's what really gets me.  I started watching in 1985 and even the wrestling 10 years ago at that time felt ancient.  Hell, watching Coliseum's "Best of the WWF" tapes (fuck yeah I said TAPES), when they'd show a match that was even 5 years old, felt completely alien. 

Considering that, it's sad to see them fall back on draws from 20 years ago nowadays.  Imagine if they brought in guys from 1965 to pop an audience for Mania 1.  Or just consider, no way in hell Vince would be bringing back Bruno to be a draw at, say, Mania 4.  Yeah, they'd put him and old stars in undercard spots like Bruno and Morales in the Mania 2 battle royal but I remember, in the buildup to it, that their presence wasn't noted as a huge draw.  

I'm hoping they really do commit to this "New Era" but I get the feeling they'll be calling the stars of the late 90s as soon as Mania rolls around again.

 

 

In the mid 70s - mid 80s, "Happy Days" was a top show and its entire draw was 50s nostalgia. Nostalgia has always been a big draw in American culture. 

The wrestling example is bad because the business changed a lot even 1980 - 1985. The WWWF was a regional company so Bruno would not have been a good nostalgia act for non-Northeast fans. 

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19 minutes ago, (BP) said:

We've also been in an unparalleled nostalgia funk culturally for a long time. Everyone roughly in WWE's adult demos want the 90s back in general, not just in wrestling.  

I'm definitely guilty of this, but I also remember a LOT of 70s nostalgia with my parents when I was growing up in the 90s. 

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11 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

I'm sure nostalgia is a big thing with every generation, but at some point you have to move on and stop telling your audience that things were better two decades ago.

Things probably were better 20 odd years ago when anything felt possible and they had direction for characters, not just the brand. 

Austin would be DOA in todays era because that character doesn't look good for a publicly traded company. Ditto for the Rock. Ambiguously gay work rate Shawn would be Ziggler today.

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51 minutes ago, DTTW said:

Austin would be DOA in todays era because that character doesn't look good for a publicly traded company. Ditto for the Rock. Ambiguously gay work rate Shawn would be Ziggler today.

In today's era, Austin could have just stayed as Stunning Steve, and had a decent midcard career for a few years.  HBK would probably be fine, since I assume he'd still give Vince those funny feelings in his swimsuit area. Rock would be Umaga'd.

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2 hours ago, mattdangerously said:

In today's era, Austin could have just stayed as Stunning Steve, and had a decent midcard career for a few years.  HBK would probably be fine, since I assume he'd still give Vince those funny feelings in his swimsuit area. Rock would be Umaga'd.

And notice how none of that screams millions of dollars in box office draw.

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3 hours ago, mattdangerously said:

In today's era, Austin could have just stayed as Stunning Steve, and had a decent midcard career for a few years.  HBK would probably be fine, since I assume he'd still give Vince those funny feelings in his swimsuit area. Rock would be Umaga'd.

Rock would be Randy Orton 2.0 - Third generation, blue chipper, face of the company... I think he would have been fine.

What if Cena debuted around now? I can't see him (pun intended) getting the rap gimmick and so he would be left as 'Ruthless Agression' era Cena. Could he get over enough in NXT with Sami, KO, Joe, Balor, Nak, Corbin etc at the top of the card? He could have ended up as the third Hype Bro!

 

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7 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

I don't get nostalgia for the characters... I get nostalgia for the ability. Foley, Austin and HBK could go. Ziggler can go but he's a cross between a poor man's HBK and poor man's Curt Hennig.

There are more good workers on today's roster than the entirety of the attitude era. Dolph Ziggler is not one of those good workers.

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