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Matches you'd show to non-fans to illustrate why you like wrestling


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I got more than a few people into wrestling by showing them late-90s New Japan juniors stuff. It's the perfect mix of crazy athleticism and stiffness, plus Liger, Ohtani, and Kanemoto (and later Dr. Wagner Jr.) have so much charisma that you can't help but buy into it. I'd suggest the final of the IWGP Junior Tag tournament from August '98 if you can find it.

Or this:

Edit: I guess I think Shinjiro Ohtani is the best introductory wrestler? I could do worse.

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On 4/12/2018 at 8:08 PM, GodzillaPerez said:

Magnum vs Tully I Quit. 

Clear good guy, clear bad guy, blood and violence, good guy overcomes odds to win.

I hate that a lot of younger wrestlers have never seen this match. I get so mad at them. It's on about 20 different DVD collections.

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On 4/14/2018 at 3:08 PM, Marty Sugar said:

I hate that a lot of younger wrestlers have never seen this match. I get so mad at them. It's on about 20 different DVD collections.

I was 6 when I saw that match and you could not tell me that wrestling was "fake" after watching that. People would say it and I'd go, "Dude, Magnum TA stabbed a dude in the head with a chair leg and there was blood everywhere! They were punching each other with a microphone! How is that fake?"

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A more recent pick: Rusev vs Cena from Mania a few years ago. Evil Bulgarian (now residing in Russia) holding our country's top prize, the US title, hostage rides in on a tank and gets the shit 'Murica'ed out of him by semi-household name John Cena. Perfect introductory viewing, even for someone viewing it through some sort of meta, ironic Tim and Eric lens

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For some reason I thought both of these happened on the same night, just across town from each other. Both matches are incredible in their own way.

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Back in 97/98 more than one of my high school classes were subject to VHS viewings of Hell in a Cell #1.  Today I'm not sure I'd pick a different match from the 20 years since.  Maybe either Sasha v. Bayley from Takeover Brooklyn or The Shield v. The Wyatts from Elimination Chamber.

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  • 1 month later...

On the subject of converting: The match that turned me from snobby 30-something hater of rasslin to rabid fan was the 2005 Rumble match. I didn't know who any of these guys were. But when it got to the final 4 (IIRC Rey, Batista, Cena, and someone else), I was hooked for life. I had no idea that kind of excitement could exist from watching this "white trash sport". I was like a little kid again, growing up in Von Erich country. 

So you never know what will work or when. 

More on topic:  if I had to show someone one match to demonstrate why I love this stuff, it would probably be Rock/Hogan. Most viewers would know those two guys, and I don't know that I have ever seen a hotter crowd. It's transcendent. 

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The Rey Mysterio is an interesting choice. I can remember watching Rey vs. ___________ (whoever) on Nitro and if my mom/dad (non-fans) happened to be in the room I might prod at them by saying something like, "hey check this guy (Rey) out." Rey would proceed to dive and/or hurracarana somebody to which would get as close to a "HOLY $^!%" reaction from a non-fan as I can imagine. 

Also interesting someone else pointed out those old 90s opening tag matches. I think Fowler mentioned the Summerslam 90 opening match that got him as a kid. Mine was WM7; Rockers were in the opener. If you can get someone to dedicate the time to sit through the opening video package, match + post match then that Savage vs. Warrior (also) from WM7 is a good example of all the range of emotions pro wrestling can take one on. Whats the total run time on that, including the post match stuff with Liz though?  

What about the Ronda mixed tag from this recent WM? High electricity, recognizable sports celeb, fairly short match with a great story and crowd. This prob works better for the converting a person, but maybe not illustrating why I'm a fan. 

******

Sorta topic adjacent; my buddy who's the second biggest fan I know (actually his DAUGHTER prob took 2nd place, she knows WAY more about the current product) only watches main roster WWE. Most here would classify him as a hardcore fan, similar to themselves, but he only watches RAW. He gave up on Smackdown years ago (when it was 70% Raw-recap) and he doesn't watch NXT. He'll take his little girl to an occasional indie show; I know they'll both always remember seeing Bayley locally before she was Bayley, but he's also got a "If they were REALLY that good, they'd bring them up to RAW." I tried telling him about Nakamura before he got called up, I think I even showed him Nakamura's first NXT match against Sami Zayn, but even that didn't take. 

I'm thinking I should try again and get him hip on Velveteen Dream. My buddy was a huge Rock fan when Rock first turned heel. 

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Am I the only one here that doesn't bother trying to turn non-fans onto wrestling? You know how I got turned onto wrestling? By flipping through the channels and finding Wrestling Challenge on Fox in the fall of 1988. 

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12 minutes.  Good guy goes forward.  Bad guys go backwards.  People go banana.  Boss hogs spotlight.  That's PRO WRESTLING in a nutshell.

If they can't get that then they can't get got.

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On 4/16/2018 at 1:13 AM, Brian Fowler said:

You know, 20 some years later I've still never watched the Mass Transit incident.

You should.

...and it should be shown to every underage, untrained kid that ever thought about lying about their age and credentials to get onto an indy show

I listened to the Blue Meanie's account of the Mass Transit incident, and the way Meanie says that Erich Kulas acted on top of lying about his age and credentials, it was hard to feel sorry for the kid. That said, it is sad he was only 22 when he died.

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