Universal Wrestling Topic

[Lonely-Martin 37,072]

1 hour ago, Keano said:

Started watching after Chapter 5 released and Undertaker announced his retirement. He's my all time favorite. I got into wrestling in 1999/2000 when The American Badass version of Undertaker was appearing and was hooked ever since. To say the man is my entire childhood may even be an understatement. To this day, the gong going still gets me jumping up and down in my living room. It's truly the end of an era for me as a fan, but I'm happy for him and at least Edge came back, my other favorite. 

I was one of the lucky ones that got to watch his debut and like you, was drawn in and hooked from day one, lol. I was about 10 when he first started with that Survivor Series match and was both in awe and a bit scared of the character, lol. But it's been an amazing ride mostly ever since.

 

Definitely contributed to my love of horror movies too, lol.

 

The way they brought Kane in was brilliant and probably the greatest debut that had a huge impact on me too. Just a perfect story with Paul Bearer doing his part of course.

 

Then the badass, a great turn and change of pace. Added much on the mic for the era and just had me drawn in more and more. The whole Brothers of Destruction thing was awesome to watch as I loved both characters. Some great storylines with the likes of Mankind and Stone Cold back then.

 

The 4 matches with Shawn and HHH were great storytelling and some awesome matches, and when he lost the streak to Brock, I was bowled over at the time too.

 

30 years I've been a huge fan and I know I'll miss his ring presence, but he'll never be forgotten and I don't think he'll ever be topped either. But this documentary was so good for me to watch and learn more about the man behind the character, along with the Stone Cold Broken Skull interview. It bought a nice end to a character I've been invested in for so long and definitely had an influence on me throughout the years.

 

What a legend! 

[Guest]

Unpopular opinion : Seth Rollins' current theme > Burn it Down

 

In fact I think his overall look is the best it's ever been. Not following the shows that much apart from clips here and there but I hope they take to calling him the Black Hand, would be a sick name for current Seth. 

[Corndawg93 1,254]

Slamerversary is currently on, who's watching?, I'm not

[Corndawg93 1,254]

Keith Lee is awesome

[Guest]

Wrestling is $#!T now. I miss the old days of wrestling 2007-2011. The cool Wrestlers like The Undertaker, Stone Cold, John Cena, HBK, Brock and many others are old and retired now.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Guest

[Bartleby 1,874]

9 hours ago, Carl Theft Auto said:

I miss the old days of wrestling 2007-2011.

I'm guessing you were a little kid during this (PG) era? Because I don't think I'm alone in saying that that period of wrestling was godawful, at least as far as WWE goes. It's generally regarded as such by people of my generation or older, it seems.

 

That said, it's not all rose-tinted glasses for me, either - there was plenty of garbage even in the golden years of the late '90s. Watching back a random Raw or Smackdown from then is interesting because the quality of the actual wrestling is pretty lacking compared to today. Back then it was more about crash TV and gimmicks, I spose.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Bartleby

[Wayne Kerr 6,252]

13 minutes ago, Bartleby said:

Watching back a random Raw or Smackdown from then is interesting because the quality of the actual wrestling is pretty lacking compared to today. Back then it was more about crash TV and gimmicks, I spose.

Tbh I prefer the older style of wrestling somewhat or at least I think today's wrestlers are... I guess too skilled if that can even be considered criticism lol, but now everyone does a suicide dive for example to the point I don't get excited with that move anymore whereas when I first watched (interestingly I first started watching WWE around 2009ish myself) it seemed like such a daredevilish and exciting move. 

 

I remember when Justin Gabriel debuted in 2010 odd and the 360 splash was seen as this magical move, now people perform even crazier moves but the thing is this has become so overdone that it doesn't feel magical anymore. I get the feeling Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat done today would appear so boring to fans used to seeing 'flippy sh*t' for lack of a better term. 

 

But yeah the consensus is that the PG era kind of sucked and even if I have a lot of nostalgia for it I will say today's era is better with the Women's revolution, the growth of NXT, the debut of AEW, the rise of NJPW etc. I guess like you said when you started watching is important too, despite how good pro wrestling is today for me 2009-2016 was the peak years as a fan. 

Edited November 3, 2020 by Utopianthumbs
Typo

[Bartleby 1,874]

5 minutes ago, Utopianthumbs said:

Tbh I prefer the older style of wrestling somewhat or at least I think today's wrestlers are... I guess too skilled if that can even be considered criticism lol

I think that's legitimate and fair criticism - sometimes it comes across as way too choreographed. WWE's had this problem for years in that the wrestling, the scripted promos, the graphics, the whole production comes across as completely overproduced.

 

What the "Attitude Era" was good at was having a good balance of lots of different guys doing lots of different things up and down the card, and all feeling totally different. Since then things have felt largely same-y.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Bartleby

[Wayne Kerr 6,252]

5 minutes ago, Bartleby said:

What the "Attitude Era" was good at was having a good balance of lots of different guys doing lots of different things up and down the card, and all feeling totally different. Since then things have felt largely same-y.

Another thing I feel the Attitude era did better(though admittedly I may be wrong on this) is that gimmick matches like Hell in a Cell, TLC matches etc felt more important and feud ending, whereas today these kind of matches becoming themed pay per views, in a way it's fine but now they dont feel as exciting cause again it feels overdone, imo these kind of matches should only come to the picture for an extremely personal feud and not just because a pay per view is themed on it. 

 

But then again this year's Hell in a Cell PPV was fun or at least the Cell matches were good so idk I may be off base haha. 

[Guest]

On 11/3/2020 at 11:52 PM, Bartleby said:

I'm guessing you were a little kid during this (PG) era? Because I don't think I'm alone in saying that that period of wrestling was godawful, at least as far as WWE goes. It's generally regarded as such by people of my generation or older, it seems.

 

That said, it's not all rose-tinted glasses for me, either - there was plenty of garbage even in the golden years of the late '90s. Watching back a random Raw or Smackdown from then is interesting because the quality of the actual wrestling is pretty lacking compared to today. Back then it was more about crash TV and gimmicks, I spose.

I was like so young when I started watching WWE 2011 because of a friend. it was fun back then. But now the shows are getting boring and boring to the point where I just watch old WWE videos and feel the nostalgia.

 

I can still remember how I reacted when John Cena won against HBK at WrestleMania 23.Good times. Even though that happened 5 years ago lmao.

Edited January 21 by Guest

[Wayne Kerr 6,252]

14 minutes ago, Carl Theft Auto said:

can still remember how I reacted when John Cena won against HBK at WrestleMania 23. Good times.

I didn't see this live but yeah it was a classic. Their rematch on Raw in London is even more highly acclaimed, not often do you see Raw matches go for an hour, and a match of that quality with a boisterous London crowd, man great stuff. HBK-Cena is one of the underrated rivalries I feel. 

Edited November 4, 2020 by Utopianthumbs

[Guest]

delete

Edited April 24 by Guest

[Wayne Kerr 6,252]

What a Raw main event, probably the best one in a while. So pumped for Survivor Series now. 

 

Putting this in spoilers just in case.

 

Spoiler

So pumped for Drew. Incredible to think he's now a two time WWE Champion and the top face after his 3MB days. WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs Universal Champion Roman Reigns is going to be a beast-fight, a bloody war and I can't wait.

 

Also it seems this is the first time the WWE title changed hands on RAW since Roman beat Sheamus in 2015, speaking of Sheamus really liking his and Drew's bromance

 

[Guest]

Just found out that one of my favorite wrestlers have died today. RIP Luke Harper, kinda reminds me a bit about Chris Benoit passing.

[Corndawg93 1,254]

R.I.P Jon Huber

[Lonely-Martin 37,072]

Yeah, a real surprise and shame to learn of Luke Harper's passing. Quite enjoyed his stuff and had hoped he could be more back when with WWE. 

 

By the sound of things, seemed like a real gent too. RIP big man!

[Corndawg93 1,254]

Royal Rumble on Sunday, who's keen

[Guest]

On 1/28/2021 at 8:21 AM, Corndawg93 said:

Royal Rumble on Sunday, who's keen

I kinda regret not watching it, Alot have returned and it was epic. 

 

Spoiler Alert:

Spoiler

Carlito Cabana returned

Edge won, which sucks.

 

[Corndawg93 1,254]

The whole card from top to bottom was superperb, very rare from WWE ppv 

[Octane 640]

On 11/3/2020 at 12:31 AM, Carl Theft Auto said:

Wrestling is $#!T now. I miss the old days of wrestling 2007-2011. The cool Wrestlers like The Undertaker, Stone Cold, John Cena, HBK, Brock and many others are old and retired now.

Actually, if you scroll through the first 70 pages of this thread, you can see what people thought of wrestling during that time lmaoo it's actually really intriguing seeing people bitch about how they absolutely hated John Cena winning all the time, and how the WWE was running out of ideas. And when they went PG in July 2008 how WWE is gonna be dead in the next few years.

[Wayne Kerr 6,252]

Thoughts on Roman Reigns' heel run? 

 

It's been going on for a while now and the matches he put on have been great with a variety of opponents. His character work has been lauded too but i dont like his character too much lol. Maybe that's the point, your top heel should be disliked and he has a real presence about him for sure, but his character isn't quite clicking for me, Heel Roman is certainly not as 'bland' as face Roman but I preferred face Roman tbh, again maybe that is the point. 

 

I wish Heel Roman won more matches clean though,I know that's the life of a heel but it's Roman freaking Reigns he shouldn't need Jey Usos help all the time , though he did beat Bryan clean last week. It would be better if when Roman cheated he does it not because he was about to lose but out of spite, like he can win clean but he still cheats cause he doesn't care. 

 

It's great that Roman now is being so well received though, I may not be his biggest fan currently but he received a ton of hate during his face run though he put on some excellent matches year after year. Brock Lesnar is still probably the best final boss heel character I've seen but Roman has a similar aura to himself too. 

 

Great to see Cesaro get his time to shine, he may be a heavy underdog to win but Cesaro vs Roman should be a great contest. 

[Octane 640]

20 hours ago, Wayne Kerr said:

Thoughts on Roman Reigns' heel run? 

 

It's been going on for a while now and the matches he put on have been great with a variety of opponents. His character work has been lauded too but i dont like his character too much lol. Maybe that's the point, your top heel should be disliked and he has a real presence about him for sure, but his character isn't quite clicking for me, Heel Roman is certainly not as 'bland' as face Roman but I preferred face Roman tbh, again maybe that is the point. 

 

I wish Heel Roman won more matches clean though,I know that's the life of a heel but it's Roman freaking Reigns he shouldn't need Jey Usos help all the time , though he did beat Bryan clean last week. It would be better if when Roman cheated he does it not because he was about to lose but out of spite, like he can win clean but he still cheats cause he doesn't care. 

 

It's great that Roman now is being so well received though, I may not be his biggest fan currently but he received a ton of hate during his face run though he put on some excellent matches year after year. Brock Lesnar is still probably the best final boss heel character I've seen but Roman has a similar aura to himself too. 

 

Great to see Cesaro get his time to shine, he may be a heavy underdog to win but Cesaro vs Roman should be a great contest. 

I can't get into wrestling anymore tbh. The PG Era was bad ike the early 2010's I feel like there's absolutely 0 star power left in WWE besides Randy Orton. Roman Reigns is no where near the level of star John Cena was nor has he had any classic matches...with no crowd the whole thing feels extremely choreographed to watch. Like the main problem is you have amazing and athletic wrestlers with zero larger than life personalities. idk maybe I'm just another "WWE is sucks lol" hater.

[Wayne Kerr 6,252]

I see what you mean but kind of disagree on this part

 

15 minutes ago, Octane said:

Roman Reigns...nor has he had any classic matches

I agree Cena was a bigger star but imo Roman's most recent Wrestlemania match vs Edge and Bryan was as good as anything Cena did, to me Cenas matches often felt formulaic and sometimes he felt too invincible that there was no possibility of him losing which kinda ruined watching some of his matches for me lol (this criticism could be applied to face Roman too I guess) 

 

Roman's had some great matches with the likes of Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles too

 

But Cena had a larger than life appeal that can't quite be matched, I'll give you that. All his fights had a big fight feel to them and you can't teach that. 

 

Tbh I don't really watch WWE that much either lol I just follow results on the internet and see YouTube videos of anything that caught my interest. I guess AEW is trying to come up as the alternative for WWE

[Corndawg93 1,254]

Roman vs Cesaro was an absolute barn burner

[Kamus89 23]

 

Good ol' stuff.

[Is this The Guy? 5,754]

These last two string of releases by the WWE were unreal.  
All I seen on Instagram lately was hype over Aleister Black making a return with this new gimmick and before he evens gets in the ring they release him.  Braun Strowman went from always being in the title hunt to being humiliated by Shane on a weekly basis to being let go.

I’m starting to legit believe that Vince is mentally ill.

[CluckinGuy69 791]

4 hours ago, Is this The Guy? said:

These last two string of releases by the WWE were unreal.  
All I seen on Instagram lately was hype over Aleister Black making a return with this new gimmick and before he evens gets in the ring they release him.  Braun Strowman went from always being in the title hunt to being humiliated by Shane on a weekly basis to being let go.

I’m starting to legit believe that Vince is mentally ill.

Man, what the flub is wrong WWE right now? Not only they released Aleister Black and Braun Strowman, they release Ruby Riott, Lana, Santana Garrett and Buddy Murphy! I really like some of them but Vinne Mac fired these people is really flubbing bullcrap. 

[Bob Loblaw 1,396]

There are 2 theories going on regarding the recent layoffs, the first being that Vince wants to save money to bring Brock back, since his salary is obviously very high. The other is that Vince wants to sell WWE to a company like NBC.

 

Either way, its sh*tty to see so many talents gone and also see that nobody except the big shots like Randy, Cena and Roman are "safe" there. Hard to understand what's going in this old man's mind.

[Lonely-Martin 37,072]

Certainly didn't see Braun getting released, and though I'm not a big fan of Aleister Black, it does seem odd he got released just as they started something with him. To be fair, quite surprised by all of this weeks releases.

 

That said, I haven't properly watched a Raw or Smackdown in ages as its all just become stale. I know the heel Roman is getting some positive feedback, but after too long of an over push, I'm so bored of him overall and he's just all they focus on with Smackdown to the point I can see him keeping the title until he's passed Hogan or something. 

 

WWE needs an edge to it and can't while it's so PG safe. Mind you, AEW needs a bit more creativity IMHO. Combine both companies and you'd get a decent product I reckon.

[Kamus89 23]

 

some pro-wrestling from my country (Argentina), i even take part of this match (i one of the guys of the senton spot). And one of the wrestlers (Django), took part of the Latin America tryouts of the WWE.

Edited June 7 by Kamus89