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June 2021 Wrestling Discussion


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Started watching when I was maybe 6 and Sting was the guy and, like Craig, I thought no-one could beat the Stinger and, in fact, I remember specifically saying just that to other kids in school but then I saw Big Van motherfucking Vader shake off a Stinger Splash AND a chairshot like they were nothing and then proceed to beat the everliving dogshit out of Sting. I went into school the next day we were in and said ''Gentlemen, I hereby retract my previous statement. Vader is going to fucking kill him.''

In those words too. I was a very vulgar child. 

So, yeah, Sting for first ever favourite wrestler and being legit afraid Vader was going to tear him apart and use his femur as a toothpick for scary moment.

Edited by Fuzzy Dunlop
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I wasn't allowed to watch it until mid 2002. My first few memories are Smackdown during Heyman booking it and the TLC from Raw Roulette. So I was super into the Smackdown roster until about 2004 when I got more into ROH and other indies.

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Weirdly, the first thing that traumatized me was Rob Bass cutting up Beefcake with his spur.  I think it may have been because they covered the screen with a big X to hide the blood. I knew things were predetermined, but I thought maybe that wasn't since they wouldn't even show it on tv. 

Another wrestling-related traumatization was when Big John Studd guest starred on an episode of Hunter (I think it was Hunter) and killed a dude by snapping his neck.  It was pretty violent for 80's network tv and really scared me.

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Warrior getting jammed into the casket only made me a bigger Undertaker fan, tbh. I was already on board with him killing jobbers and body-bagging them, but the casket attack on Warrior immediately jumped 'Taker to high on my list of rooting interests. 

The Funeral Parlor also had that dope segment where Jake locked the Undertaker's hand in the casket and beat the shit out of him, but then Taker eventually no-sells it and drags the casket behind him, chasing a terrified Jake down the aisle. That was some king-sized shit.

WWF ran quite a few angles at that time that solidified my fandom, and they were all cheesy or exploitative to some degree, but even so, I still have reverence for them:

  • Undertaker locking Warrior in the casket and Jake putting Warrior through the trials to help him get over that traumatic event only to betray him, followed by a promo where he tells a variation of "The Scorpion and the Frog" where the trusting frog is instead a rabbit that ends with him calling Warrior "the dumbest rabbit I ever saw." That was some evil shit; it might be my favorite promo ever just because of how much impact it had on young me. 
  • The Jake/Undertaker thing mentioned above
  • Jake/Savage and the snakebite + slapping Miss Elizabeth
  • Papa Shango causing Warrior to bleed goop from his head (I know it's corny, but at the time, it had me ready for a Shango/Undertaker feud where they used their magicks against one another)
  • Mr. Perfect coming back to team with Randy Savage against Flair and having a face turn (man, I could not WAIT to have an excuse to root for Perfect because those vignettes made him look amazing)
  • Shawn Michaels SCM'ing and tossing Marty Jannetty through the Barber Shop window and then ripping the magazine that featured an article about their potential breakup in half.
  • For that matter, Marty accidentally hitting Sherri with Michaels's heart-shaped mirror and Michaels bailing. 
  • That + the WCW angle where Steamboat accidentally hit Madusa and then was fucked up about it while Rude and his cohorts unfairly labeled Steamboat a woman-beater. 

Gosh, a lot of these angles had women getting hit, but as a kid, I was just like, that's the worst thing you can do. I wanted to see Jake get his world fucked up by Savage, and I was outraged at how Steamboat clearly didn't mean to hit Madusa and how they were taking advantage of his guilt over such a terrible accident. In fact, I was still rooting for Michaels until that mirror thing happened because that was a final straw and it was just too awful that he moved Sherri in the way like that for me to continue rooting for him. I see how exploitative that stuff was now, but it definitely sparked visceral feelings in me as a kid.

 

Edited by SirSmellingtonofCascadia
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13 minutes ago, Log said:

Weirdly, the first thing that traumatized me was Rob Bass cutting up Beefcake with his spur.

I'm surprised, especially since DJ EZ Rock wasn't involved, since... you know... it takes two

James

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my answer to every question so far is "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

my first favorite wrestler and still my #1 of all time.  Ultimate Warrior when he came around joined him at the top of the list. Clearly i have an affinity for the OTT characters.

Savage was my first wrestling fig. don't know which line, but he was big and unposeable.  My action figures were a motley crew of wrestlers, superheroes, gi joes, TMNT, and whatever other rando characters showed up. But Savage was King of them all.

Savage getting bit by the cobra scared the shit out of young me. like whoever said it earlier, i was certain that he was a dead man. i didn't see the earthquake/damian bit until a few years after it happened, but it was the talk of recess and was also terrifying. the only other thing that comes close is the Warrior/Papa Shango bit where black goo oozes out of Warrior's head. 

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As silly as WWF gimmicks were in the late 80's and early 90's, they've stood the test of time.  A lot of us have a healthy level of nostalgia for the various wrestling barbers, garbagemen, millionaires, fake African-Americans, supernatural creatures. and assorted nuts that filtered in and out of the WWF during that period. 

I wonder how much nostalgia we'll have for today's gimmicks 20 years from now.  There are a lot of bland gimmicks and wrestlers out there.  I can't imagine I'll be missing earnest babyface Kevin Owens or try-hard babyface Roman Reigns in 20 years.  

Realism doesn't need to equal blandness but Vince's people don't generally know what to do with oddball gimmicks. 

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Money in the Bank qualifiers start on RAW tonight

Men's

AJ Styles vs. Ricochet
Randy Orton vs. John Morrison
Drew McIntyre vs. Riddle

Women's

Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs. Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler
Asuka & Naomi vs. Eva Marie & Piper Niven (Doudrop)

So yes - Eva Marie is gonna be in MITB and Asuka and Naomi won't be (assuming they don't some sort of Last Chance Scramble)

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On 6/19/2021 at 3:52 PM, Octopus said:

Fun question while I make Hamburger Helper: Who were your favorite wrestlers as a kid? The people that got you all into wrestling.

Owen Hart, Arn Anderson, Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Steven Regal, the Hollywood Blondes, Razor Ramon. Honestly, I like Jean-Paul Levesque as I started watching wrestling too and was jazzed when he showed up in WWF after being gone a bit in WCW.

EDIT: I almost forgot, for some reason I thought Sgt. Craig Pittman was the shit. No idea why.

Edited by James F'n X
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3 hours ago, Eoae said:

As silly as WWF gimmicks were in the late 80's and early 90's, they've stood the test of time.  A lot of us have a healthy level of nostalgia for the various wrestling barbers, garbagemen, millionaires, fake African-Americans, supernatural creatures. and assorted nuts that filtered in and out of the WWF during that period. 

I wonder how much nostalgia we'll have for today's gimmicks 20 years from now.  There are a lot of bland gimmicks and wrestlers out there.  I can't imagine I'll be missing earnest babyface Kevin Owens or try-hard babyface Roman Reigns in 20 years.  

Realism doesn't need to equal blandness but Vince's people don't generally know what to do with oddball gimmicks. 

Interesting point! I have a feeling the biggest part of that nostalgia was experiencing all that zaniness for the first time as a kid. Who in 20 years will the kids that are just getting their first wrestling action figures remember as their favorites? Maybe the New Day? Sasha Banks? Roman Reigns? Especially as we enter a post/less Cena world.

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3 hours ago, Eoae said:

As silly as WWF gimmicks were in the late 80's and early 90's, they've stood the test of time.  A lot of us have a healthy level of nostalgia for the various wrestling barbers, garbagemen, millionaires, fake African-Americans, supernatural creatures. and assorted nuts that filtered in and out of the WWF during that period. 

I wonder how much nostalgia we'll have for today's gimmicks 20 years from now.  There are a lot of bland gimmicks and wrestlers out there.  I can't imagine I'll be missing earnest babyface Kevin Owens or try-hard babyface Roman Reigns in 20 years.  

Realism doesn't need to equal blandness but Vince's people don't generally know what to do with oddball gimmicks. 

How do kids even play wrestling nowadays? “I’m very intense and I have a beard!” “I am also intense and have a beard! Let’s fight!”

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52 minutes ago, Log said:

How do kids even play wrestling nowadays? “I’m very intense and I have a beard!” “I am also intense and have a beard! Let’s fight!”

 

I suspect a more sanitized youth (good in some ways, bad in others) , and WWE being uncool.  AEW is supposedly getting some kids though.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Log said:

How do kids even play wrestling nowadays? “I’m very intense and I have a beard!” “I am also intense and have a beard! Let’s fight!”

That was this guy's gimmick:

danhausen-e1573864796175.jpg

But then he got over, by changing to this one:

ElxFWfik.jpg

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2 hours ago, James F'n X said:

EDIT: I almost forgot, for some reason I thought Sgt. Craig Pittman was the shit. No idea why.

Pittman was awesome. The late 90s was just the totally wrong place for him, especially since he never got any programs against guys like Benoit or Eddy, who would have made him look like a killer. He'd be a huge star on the indies if he was coming up now

Edited by elizium
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Very small sample size: all my wife’s nephews love Romain Reigns. I think the video games help. Last time I saw them wrestling got brought up and it was talked about by social media clips and how they could destroy me in the games. This was a while ago but they actually knew the storylines and things like that. I’m not sure if they actually watch the episodes, but WWE does a great job posting all the important clips on Facebook and YouTube. It’s very easy for a kid to follow along and ask their mom to buy them a New Day shirt.

My friends little brother loves Shane McMahon. Haha. 

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2 hours ago, Log said:

How do kids even play wrestling nowadays? “I’m very intense and I have a beard!” “I am also intense and have a beard! Let’s fight!”

Back in my day we called that playing Walker: Texas Ranger.

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3 hours ago, Log said:

How do kids even play wrestling nowadays? “I’m very intense and I have a beard!” “I am also intense and have a beard! Let’s fight!”

Honestly I imagine its more lie Darby Allen vs Orange Cassidy, When Disco Inferno was on Jericho's podcast a while back he talked about his advise to upand coming wrestlers was "be the guy with the gimmick"

First wrestling memories super hazy on this one but Jake the Snake vs either Rick Rude or Macho Man (I loved Rick Rude insulting the crowd bit as a kid even if as an adult its not that great) and some angle where Jake was going to sneak attack Macho back stage with a chair as he came through the curtain but Elizabeth was walking ahead of him as he played to the crowd so the announcers where screaming that Jake was gonna hit Elizabeth. I feel that all these violence against women angles say alot about Vinces relationship with his mother

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1 hour ago, Octopus said:

Back in my day we called that playing Walker: Texas Ranger.

Of course, because it was the lead-in to Raw!

EDIT: No wait, was that Renegade instead? This is post-Silk Stalkings era.

Edited by Curt McGirt
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4 hours ago, Log said:

How do kids even play wrestling nowadays? “I’m very intense and I have a beard!” “I am also intense and have a beard! Let’s fight!”

I've been told they rather just watch videos on Youtube of other kids who are really good at play wrestling.

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