March 2022 Wrestling Discussion

[The Natural]

1 minute ago, supremebve said:

At least it's AJ  Styles, I'd tell him to fuck off if it was Billy Gunn or Dolph Ziggler.  AJ Styles is one of the best wrestlers of this generation.

AJ Styles is indeed one of the best wrestlers of this generation but for Flair to say "it's a big stretch to say Danielson is any way better than AJ Styles" is bullshit. Danielson is a better wrestler, better talker, more versatile and a better person.

[AxB]

6 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

Kinda makes sense that the guy who spent most of his career working in North Carolina is a big fan of the guy from Georgia who was likely a fan of his growing up?

AJ was an onscreen protege of Flair’s, during Ric’s TNA run. Flair is doing the reflected glory thing.

[John from Cincinnati]

And as far as I'm aware, Flair has at no point worked as closely with Danielson. It's pretty clear where he's coming from. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

I actually feel kind of badly for Mark Madden, which is something I thought I'd never say but here we are

[supremebve]

3 minutes ago, The Natural said:

AJ Styles is indeed one of the best wrestlers of this generation but for Flair to say "it's a big stretch to say Danielson is any way better than AJ Styles" is bullshit. Danielson is a better wrestler, better talker, more versatile and a better person.

I 100% agree with you, but that is our opinion.  There isn't anything crazy if you think that AJ Styles is better in every single way that we think that Brian Danielson is better.  I like Rocky III better than Rocky IV, but I'm not going to argue with anyone for thinking the exact opposite.  If someone brought up Rocky V in this discussion, I might curse at them.  

[Infinit]

2 hours ago, A_K said:

Eh, you do you. She certainly didn't look very amused by the joke. Smith did what he did and he bears the consequences. You make your own decisions as to how you respond around interactions concerning your family.

Maybe Chris thought Will and Jada would have thicker skin, given how open they have been about their personal life lol

[AxB]

The year Will and Jada boycotted the Oscars, Chris Rock hosted and used the occasion to throw a few verbal jabs their way. 

[TheVileOne]

Concussion was a mediocre movie. 

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

4 hours ago, A_K said:

Yes. Bryan had won the belt in the promotion already & held for a third of a year. Booker brought his belt over to the promotion, promptly dropped it, was chased around a grocery store and bingo hall, covered with food then kidded around with Golddust doing Star Wars and sex jokes. Not similar (& I liked WCW Booker .. but WWF Booker at that time wasn’t it). He was a placeholder at that point in time for a reason.

And Bryan had been doing anger management skits with Kane and Dr Shelby over an aborted angle with Charlie Sheen.

Booker had main evented several PPVs with The Rock, as well as being the face of WCW.

I can buy that Bryan was more over with the crowd at the time (WWE 2003 is a blur to me) but I have a hard time believing that Bryan in 2013 was a bigger deal/established name than Booker T in 2003.

[nate]

2 hours ago, A_K said:

It looked like he was laughing at the previous Bardem joke re him wanting Smith to win Oscar then didn’t quite get the Jada joke until he was off-screen (presumably saw her reaction). To be honest I didn’t understand the joke either until it was explained online: quite insidious & cowardly one.

The reaction was equally insidious and cowardly. 

As a country, we've spent way too much time on these three nobodies already.

[Log]

I haven't read every HHH post in the last few pages, so forgive me if this has been discussed.

But, most of people's ire toward HHH beating Booker T clean was that, in the lead-up to the match, HHH had made racist remarks to Booker in promos.  Him then not only winning, but doing it clean, basically "proved" him "right".  I know that's the thing that leaves a sour taste in my mouth over that match.  

When you have a white heel saying to a black challenger that "people like you" don't get to be champions, and then he wins, how does that look?

[A_K]

22 minutes ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

And Bryan had been doing anger management skits with Kane and Dr Shelby over an aborted angle with Charlie Sheen.

Booker had main evented several PPVs with The Rock, as well as being the face of WCW.

I can buy that Bryan was more over with the crowd at the time (WWE 2003 is a blur to me) but I have a hard time believing that Bryan in 2013 was a bigger deal/established name than Booker T in 2003.

Booker was, unfortunately, a joke in 2002/3. He had a bit of a shine when he joined as one of the very few legit WCW stars carried over, but they very quickly dragged him down into the gutter with the rest of the WCW bunch and fed him to Rock/Austin .. then Crash Holly and Stevie Richards took pins on him before the Goldust stuff kicked in. The turn of the year and ‘Mania angle was really the start of his rehabilitation .. that slot at WM kind of came out of nowhere (battle royal win I think?) then while he lost there, he’d go on to win a host of other singles belts (IC / US) shortly after before eventually winning the big one. 

[Infinit]

22 minutes ago, Log said:

When you have a white heel saying to a black challenger that "people like you" don't get to be champions, and then he wins, how does that look?

This.

[zendragon]

2 hours ago, The Natural said:

Fuck off, Ric Flair.

Not really surprising considering that from his book Flair is way more of a Shawn guy than a Bret guy

[Krone]

Lets not forget it wouldn't even be until three years later that he would get the big gold belt on SmackDown during the King Booker run. That's just unfortunately how they slotted him.

Of course they needed a main event prescence from WCW/ECW to make the Invasion feel real besides throwing Austin, Angle, ect. in there. Those guys were RVD and Booker T, but they were never going to be used as anything more than fodder for that angle. Perfect example, who did the 5v5 Winner Take All Survivor Series match come down to for both teams? WCW was Kurt Angle and Stone Cold and the WWF was Rock and Jericho. No RVD. No Booker T.

[TheVileOne]

Let's not forget Triple H beat CM Punk when CM Punk was at his absolute hottest. Punk never got a rematch or win over Triple H. Triple H and HBK did try to bury Punk because they didn't like how he looked. Having Triple H win at that point and then not running it back was stupid.

Also, we never found out who called Paul Heyman and told him to fire CM Punk. #JustSaying.

Edited March 28, 2022 by TheVileOne

[Krone]

Alright then, I'm gonna go there. Once Rock and Austin left, Triple H was their main attraction without a doubt. He was the guy always pushed in the main event slot.

Can you credit part of the loss in popularity of wrestling as a whole to Triple H? Or had Rock/Austin stayed around, do you think business would have continued to boom.

I do think theres a correlation between Trips rise to prominence and the fall of wrestling popularity, but there are certainly other factors. Let's be honest, from 2002-2004 HHH was the nWo to the WWE. He was always the main storyline guy. ALWAYS.

[Kang]

WWE news:

WWE to begin airing their Premium Live Events at Dave & Buster’s. WWE gained a bunch of new viewers for those PL Events since moving to Peacock, the new deal with D&B will add even more.

Triple H resumed his EVP duties, so working in the office, recruiting and development of future talent and eventually setting up more performance centres.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Blue Dragon

[AxB]

2 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

Let's not forget Triple H beat CM Punk when CM Punk was at his absolute hottest. Punk never got a rematch or win over Triple H. Triple H and HBK did try to bury Punk because they didn't like how he looked. Having Triple H win at that point and then not running it back was stupid.

Also, we never found out who called Paul Heyman and told him to fire CM Punk. #JustSaying.

When Rock was a part timer, coming back for mini-runs two or three times a year, he’d always try to work with an underneath, mid carder level guy, and put them over a bit. Whether it was Edge & Christian, or Hurricane or Eugene. They would be a bigger star after their Rock deal than before.

Then Triple H would squash them in ten seconds immediately.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

56 minutes ago, AxB said:

When Rock was a part timer, coming back for mini-runs two or three times a year, he’d always try to work with an underneath, mid carder level guy, and put them over a bit. Whether it was Edge & Christian, or Hurricane or Eugene. They would be a bigger star after their Rock deal than before.

Then Triple H would squash them in ten seconds immediately.

Yep. Usually with a sleeper or something equally lame too.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

This thread is a good reminder I have to go back and watch HHH/Taka and Rock/Hurricane. I was way into those at the time, and I can't remember having seen them since. I hope they hold up

[Cobra Commander]

meanwhile in the replies, Bagwell tweeting at Scotty Riggs about a reunion

 

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

One of the few things in this grim version of reality that makes RAF giddy is old (circa 1966-1985 preferably) wrestling magazines. i love 'em. Recently I was gifted a few, and also won a shockingly reasonable eBay auction (I refuse to pay more than $3@): I am in heaven. I just discovered that a really good time frame for my reading enjoyment is that 3 month publishing delay between Hulk Hogan returning to the AWA from Japan and quickly jumping to the WWF - so say, an Inside Wrestling with a cover date of March '84 is still reporting on how HH is going to unseat Bockwinkel because The Fans Demand It, but meanwhile the face, future, direction and reality of pro wrestling has changed forever. It's like a document for an alternate universe. The mags often have an element of innocence to them, in maintaining the kay fabes, but this is almost poignant. Damn, I love these things - now I am going to read "Johnny Powers - Is His Middle Name Violence?" and "The Night The Sheik Burned A Young REFEREE!!!". I am always learning...

[Technico Support]

Stuff that leaps to mind from the old magazines in no particular order:

• The Crockett-era Road Warriors being ranked the #1 team in the world in PWI forever despite not holding a title
• Magazines running their own storylines wherein they hand-wring over giving or taking away World Title recognition
• Wrestling Superstars magazine's Dream Matches.  Hogan vs Tyson!  WWF vs NWA in a Battle of the Network Stars style competition!  A tag tournaemnt where the regular teams are mixed up and the final was Eaton/Morton vs Lane/Gibson!
• Eddie Ellner's heel act.
• Dr. Sydney M. Basil
• Second tier mag (Wrestling Eye?  Main Event?) weirdness, like a story about how HTM made a deal with the spirits of the Mississippi Delta so he could keep the IC title.
• Ads for Champions of the Galaxy wrestling card game.  Yeah, I bought that.
• General anti-Hogan sentiment, in all their kayfabe stories, after Vince cut the Apter mags off

[cwoy2j]

33 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Stuff that leaps to mind from the old magazines in no particular order:

• The Crockett-era Road Warriors being ranked the #1 team in the world in PWI forever despite not holding a title
• Magazines running their own storylines wherein they hand-wring over giving or taking away World Title recognition
• Wrestling Superstars magazine's Dream Matches.  Hogan vs Tyson!  WWF vs NWA in a Battle of the Network Stars style competition!  A tag tournaemnt where the regular teams are mixed up and the final was Eaton/Morton vs Lane/Gibson!
• Eddie Ellner's heel act.
• Dr. Sydney M. Basil
• Second tier mag (Wrestling Eye?  Main Event?) weirdness, like a story about how HTM made a deal with the spirits of the Mississippi Delta so he could keep the IC title.
• Ads for Champions of the Galaxy wrestling card game.  Yeah, I bought that.
• General anti-Hogan sentiment, in all their kayfabe stories, after Vince cut the Apter mags off

I loved that magazine. The highlights were Terry Funk winning one of the swimming competitions by punching someone while underwater, The Road Warriors destroying everyone in the weightlifting competition, Macho Man leading the WWF to victory in softball and the final obstacle course race between Flair and Hogan with Flair winning.

And don't forget about when PWI broke down the original fake Sting plot where the Horsemen had Barry Windham impersonate Sting so that Sid could win the title. They talked about how they bribed Sting's tailor who was broke into making Windham copies of Sting's tights, Windham being upset at JJ for telling him to lose some flab in order to better look like Sting and I quote, "one of Flair's numerous girlfriends in the Atlanta area was enlisted to apply Sting's face paint to Windham."