November 2021 Wrestling Discussion

[Matt D]

Very briefly:

20+ odd years ago I chose to go with my first name/last initial probably because I was a young, slightly overwhelmed lurker for the most part and it felt like it gave me a little more credibility than having a gimmick name to hide behind.

The big rule of wrestling around here is that it doesn't impact the rest of my life. The kids never take second place to it, for instance. I've kind of kept them out of it since it's brought as much heartache as joy. If they find their own way into it, I'll support them and provide them things, but it's a hobby I tend to have to myself.

[Dog]

1 hour ago, JohnnyJ said:

We've reached a point where there isn't much shame in being open about watching WWE or AEW.

One of my social circles is made up of academics and academic-adjacents. They're confused enough by my comic fandom, so not a single word about wrestling is breathed around them.

EDIT: I did "confide" in one guy, who took it in stride, but was completely baffled when I took him to an EVOLVE show. Like, he was so confused, I might as well have shown him ancient South Pacific tribal rituals.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Dog

[Zakk_Sabbath]

16 minutes ago, Matt D said:

The big rule of wrestling around here is that it doesn't impact the rest of my life. The kids never take second place to it, for instance. I've kind of kept them out of it since it's brought as much heartache as joy. If they find their own way into it, I'll support them and provide them things, but it's a hobby I tend to have to myself.

I'm so glad you wrote this. I have a brother who's many years younger than me, and I very purposely avoided introducing this to him for the same reason, and I wasn't sure if that was the right thing.

Things like DSotR and AEW's general vibe of "good will" have changed my stance on it somewhat, as people actively seek to avoid repeating the same mistakes. If he came to me now as an older kid I'd probably show him the good stuff, but he was born pretty shortly after the Benoit tragedy, so at the time it made me think about getting the news about Pillman, Spicoli, Owen etc. as a kid.

[Dog]

Also, you know, young kids can't always discriminate between fantasy violence and real violence. We know that wrestling exists in a special world where punching someone or tearing their shoulder out of socket DOES solve all problems, but the real world could do with a little less of that.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Dog

[John E. Dynamite]

1 hour ago, JohnnyJ said:

Now how do you explain to people that most nights you wait until your wife goes to sleep to turn on midnight express matches? 

I mean it's right there in their name.

[Zimbra]

I chose my name because I was in a Talking Heads phase one time when the board got nuked and I had to pick a new name, and this one stuck.  I don't even like the song all that much.

I don't remember ever really getting grief for liking pro wrestling, either as an adult or a kid, except for some "It's fake" ribbing from my older siblings.

[(BP)]

My kids have shown little interest in watching wrestling, but they love playing it. In our case that’s me jobbing in a handicap match where I get no offense and I do Ray Stevens bumps around our living room in a manner my wife wouldn’t approve of if she were home. 

 

[Matt D]

42 minutes ago, Dog said:

One of my social circles is made up of academics and academic-adjacents. They're confused enough by my comic fandom, so not a single word about wrestling is breathed around them.

I sympathize with this. I did finally get a promotion I've been trying to get for years at work so maybe I might be a little more lax about it, but I leave most of my hobbies at the door (virtual or otherwise) when I step in. If I ever made it to an Assistant Director of a Department level, I might take it on as an affectation and have a bunch of lucha masks displayed on shelves or something, like the one we had who had framed Tintin posters around his office, but I'm probably not reaching that level.

3 minutes ago, (BP) said:

My kids have shown little interest in watching wrestling, but they love playing it. In our case that’s me jobbing in a handicap match where I get no offense and I do Ray Stevens bumps around our living room in a manner my wife wouldn’t approve of if she were home. 

Oh yeah, no watching wrestling with the kids but they're happy to try to climb all over me and get power bombed lightly onto the couch or what not. Protips: Torture Rack always works. Almost everything can be done pretty safely, but never ever try for an Exploder; kids bounce.

[DEAN]

37 minutes ago, Zimbra said:

I chose my name because I was in a Talking Heads phase one time when the board got nuked and I had to pick a new name, and this one stuck.  I don't even like the song all that much.

I don't remember ever really getting grief for liking pro wrestling, either as an adult or a kid, except for some "It's fake" ribbing from my older siblings.

I ZIMBRA! Downdownnonowonow-downowndonownow

[The Natural]

Just added by WWE. The best Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Flair match and one of the best women's matches in WWE history.

[Spontaneous]

I don't like telling people I'm a wrestling fan, all they know is WWE. I'm happier not being ridiculed for my hobbies. None of my friends like it and the only person I know who actually watches it is my dad who only likes WWE and does not like anything else.

[Log]

I'm gonna reply to two topics here...

First, my name.  I've had the nickname "Log" since my sophomore year of high school.  I walk into math class one day, and this dude yells out "Matt (my name) The Log!" I was like, what? He says he was looking at his calculator, saw the Log button and thought it'd be a funny nickname. He decided that the next person who walked in the room was getting it.  I can't believe how long it stuck.

Pretty much anyone that knows me knows I love pro wrestling.  Honestly, I've never had anyone be a dick about it.  I got into it around Hulkamania, so it was "in".  I kind of fell out in the early-mid 90's and came back in during the Attitude era when it was "in" again.  Since then, I've been old enough to not give a shit.

A few years ago, I worked at a tv station where we had like 7-8 legitimately hardcore wrestling fans.  A couple of them even worked as commentators on the side.  In addition to them, we had quite a few who had been fans at some point and had a fondness for it.  We even gained a couple fans when some on-air people did some "celebrity" matches for OVW and a huge group of us went to the shows.  Other than college (late 90's) when WWF was huge, that's the most social my wrestling fandom has been.

[Dog]

I started college in '98, so you'd THINK my wrestling fandom would have been a plus then. But I was the guy refusing to flip to Austin on Raw because Perry Saturn was wrestling on Nitro.

It wasn't a plus.

[BrianS81177]

Re: bullies I got it through 7th grade pretty good. Then between 7th and 8th grade I grew 6 inches and gained 40 pounds and it all of a sudden stopped for some odd reason lol. 

[supremebve]

15 minutes ago, Dog said:

I started college in '98, so you'd THINK my wrestling fandom would have been a plus then. But I was the guy refusing to flip to Austin on Raw because Perry Saturn was wrestling on Nitro.

It wasn't a plus.

I mean...You kind of brought this on yourself, lol. I like Perry Saturn as much as anyone, but there has not been a single second of my life where I'd rather watch Perry Saturn over Steve Austin. 

[Dog]

I hated Attitude. Still do.

[supremebve]

10 minutes ago, Dog said:

I hated Attitude. Still do.

Lol,  I'm not criticizing you or your tastes,  but you probably shouldn't be the person holding the remote in this situation. I know more about music than any of my friends,  so when we had parties, naturally they put me in charge of the music. The problem is I'm interested in a lot of random stuff, because it's rare, interesting, or because I just discovered a new artist that I'm excited about. That isn't what you want from your DJ. You want someone who plays music that everyone likes so they can shake their ass. They don't give a fuck about the rapper who you just discovered at 3 AM on a random music blog the night before. I shouldn't be the DJ, you shouldn't hold the remote. 

With that said,  in about 2010, I had a party where I was tm in charge of the music and played a bunch of Big K.R.I.T., Freddie Gibbs, J. Cole, and something I found from this kid named Kendrick... no one gave a fuck. I was right,  but that doesn't actually matter. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

3 hours ago, Dog said:

Also, you know, young kids can't always discriminate between fantasy violence and real violence. We know that wrestling exists in a special world where punching someone or tearing their shoulder out of socket DOES solve all problems, but the real world could do with a little less of that.

You make a good point, it's a different era now. Most of what I watched as a kid was centered around cartoon or live action fighting anyway, so wrestling really wasn't a huge transition from something like the Power Rangers or X-Men, for example. I don't know that many of those kinds of kid shows are getting made anymore, so something like wrestling might come off as completely foreign.

 

59 minutes ago, Dog said:

I started college in '98, so you'd THINK my wrestling fandom would have been a plus then. But I was the guy refusing to flip to Austin on Raw because Perry Saturn was wrestling on Nitro.

It wasn't a plus.

Ive been trying for years to meet someone who attended an actual Nitro party in college, but it's not happened yet

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, Dog said:

I started college in '98, so you'd THINK my wrestling fandom would have been a plus then. But I was the guy refusing to flip to Austin on Raw because Perry Saturn was wrestling on Nitro.

It wasn't a plus.

I got crap in college for switching to Nitro instead of Raw too. I think I tried to get them to switch to Sting vs Benoit when This is Your Life Rock was on. That didn't go well.

[Dog]

That fucking Rock thing went on FOREVER. I remember switching over at least three times to see if it had ended yet.

[supremebve]

My best friend is about as big of a wrestling fan who exists... except he's pretty much only interested in WWE. He watches every show,  no matter what bullshit they put on,  and is perfectly content with it. I've been trying to expand his wrestling horizons since the late 90s, and he legitimately prefers WWE to pretty much everything else. I haven't been able to sit through an entire episode of RAW that I want in the crowd for since about 2005. It's the exact opposite of what I want from wrestling about 75% of the time. He is 95% of wrestling fans... we are the weirdos. My advice is to embrace your own quirks,  because if you're waiting for the 95% to appreciate what you see,  you'll be waiting forever. 

[Matt D]

My advice is embrace your DVDVR message board community and sign up for Secret Santo and make some pals here. But I'm pretty biased on multiple levels.

[Casey]

I wear an AEW backpack to work every weekend so I'm that kind of nerd that's out and open about what I like (now). I fully admit that before AEW came around, I definitely hid it (and wasn't as invested either).

@Matt D will be happy to hear, though, that I've had a Seth Rollins shirt for a few years now and I always wear it out in public. Although, since about 2016, and especially since January 6th... well, the "Redesign Rebuild Reclaim" catchphrase, along with what looks like a crosshair type logo... big oof.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Casey

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

1 hour ago, Dog said:

I started college in '98, so you'd THINK my wrestling fandom would have been a plus then. But I was the guy refusing to flip to Austin on Raw because Perry Saturn was wrestling on Nitro.

When you were asked to turn the channel to RAW, did you reply "But what about Raven?"  Because if you didn't, you should have. 

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Double post.

So this isn't a complete waste, is anyone else watching NXT 2.0 and thinking "most of these people will never make the main roster."  Aside from Steiner's kid,  Toxic Attraction, and maybe Odyssey Jones, the new kids mostly seem bland, green, or just bad to me.  Duke Hudson, Joe Gacy and his bald giant, the guy from Riverdale University circa 1950, the wise guy, Smoking Gunns 2K21 - whose name I still don't know; I don't think there's a lot of future 24/7 title hunters in the current crop, much less future stars.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Tarheel Moneghetti