[Gorefest]

Problem is that guys like Hogan, Macho Man and (you're coming up to WM6 soon!) Ultimate Warrior are very much products of the '80-ies. They don't really translate very well to a modern audience, it is all very over the top and larger than life stuff.

[acesn8s]

I hope Jalopnik, Gizmodo, and Lifehacker get spun off before Gawker falls.

Giant wresters like Andre and the Big Show never interested me. I always thought, wasted potential.

I was born in 72, so late 70s and early 80s wrestling was main period. I got into WWF/E and WCW in the mid 90s with my college roommates ( I think that is when Hogan made a comeback). Enjoyed the hell out of Stone Cold and the Rock. Like seeing some of the classic wrestlers come back in WCW. Thought the NWO was a great stable. After WCW got bought out I phased out again. The lack of competition seemed to stale the WWE.

[Mezla PigDog]

It may be a surprise to hear but I love the wrestling. I didn't really watch it as a kid in the 80s/90s but always tended to know who the stars were and knew what was going on. To my shame I really got into it a few years ago when my tv bundle had a catch-up of Smackdown and Raw on Sunday morning tv. I kind of lost interest when CM Punk left, then had a Daniel Bryant resurgence but then got bored of it again with Brock Lesnar. I don't have channels where I can watch it now but as said upthread the outcome may always be rigged and it is choreographed but they are awesome athletes. The giants and the guys who are blatantly on steroids are a bit dull but the really talented ones are brilliant and then the stupid storylines just keep it ticking along. I loathe John Cena, his character is so dull and I can't make my mind up about Randy Orton - is he good or just on a truck load of steroids? I have a soft spot for Kofi Kingston but he had no character development while I was watching.

[Gorefest]

Mezla PigDog, on 21 March 2016 - 01:43 PM, said:

I have a soft spot for Kofi Kingston but he had no character development while I was watching.

Oh. My. God. Please go and watch every single entry for 'New Day' on YouTube right now. You will be squealing with glee. Kofi is currently the longest running tag team title holder of all time. New Day rocks!

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 21 March 2016 - 02:36 PM

[Mezla PigDog]

Also, random anecdote. If anyone watches wrestling and The Walking Dead - I cannot call Abraham from Walking Dead anything name other than Sheamus. I enjoy it when people slap Sheamus so hard that he gets pink hand marks on him. It's just a novelty to see flesh as white as my own on tv!

[Gorefest]

Just a bit of a quick recap of the past period for the uninitiated or the idled out:

WrestleMania 32 is hitting Arlington, Texas, this weekend.

On the Friday prior to this event (Easter Friday), the WWE developmental branch NXT will do their own PPV which promises to be a blast as well.

Then on Saturday will be the annual Hall of Fame, where wrestling legends get inducted. Currently the inductee list for this year stands as: the Godfather, Jacqueline, the Fabulous Freebirds, Big Boss Man, and Sting (2 more to follow I think).

WrestleMania has the following matches currently confirmed:

* Andre the giant memorial battle royal: the 3rd time this match takes place, probably on the pre-show this time. Previous winners were Cesaro and the Big Show. I think Mark Henry will have a good shot at this one as this may be his last WM performance.

* The Usos versus the Dudley Boyz: for the old time viewers among you, yes it is the same Dudleys from the attitude era (Bubba Ray & Devon), they're back full time in WWE. I still suspect they may put in another tag team nearer the time, namely Goldust & R-truth who have been playing around with the idea to form a tag team for the past few weeks.

* The New Day (a fantastic group of highly entertaining but also very skilled wrestlers, with 'daddy' Kofi Kingston, Big E - a former NXT champion - and Xavier Woods) who are the current tag team champions with a fairly long title reign, put their title on the line agains the 'League of Nations' (a rather lacklustre, in my opinion at least, 'super' team of Sheamus, Alberto del Rio, Wade Barrett, and Rusev) in a 4-on-3 handicap match. For weeks now the New Day have been making fun of the various League of Nations members, examples of which can be found on YouTube. New Day are pure class entertainment personified.

* Kalisto vs Ryback: USA title match, bog-standard lucha libre small jumping lad versus big ugly musclehead. Kalisto is amazing though as a high flyer, so worth seeing it for the spectacular spots that he pulls off. Other than that probably a forgettable affair.

* Diva's Championship match: Charlotte (Rick Flair's daughter and reigning diva's champion) versus Sasha Banks versus Becky Lynch. These three are at the forefront of the women's wrestling revival that sprang out of the NXT developmental scene. After years of drudgery, the women's division is actually exciting and fun to watch again with plenty of space for storylines and on-air matches. Great stuff.

* Dean Ambrose versus Brock Lesnar: two of my favourite guys in the entire company. Brock broke the Undertaker's streak (21-0 at WrestleMania) two years ago and ever since then he has only gotten better and better to watch. Pure brutality, and with Paul Heyman as his manager you can be guaranteed some great speeches as well. Dean Ambrose used to be part of one of the most dominating and exciting new factions of the past 10 years: the Shield. After the Shield broke up in June 2014, all three members have been stellar in their own right. Seth Rollins held the WWE world heavyweight title for 9 months until an injury ended his reign. He is still not back from injury. Roman Reigns will appear later on the card in the main event for the title. Ambrose is facing off against Lesnar in a street fight, which is right up his alley as he is sort of portrayed as an outright brawler in good old Mick Foley style. Last week on Raw, Foley/Mankind actually donated his barb wire baseball bat to Ambrose in a sort of 'passing the torch' move, so no doubt we will see that one reappear this weekend against Lesnar.

* Shane McMahon versus the Undertaker. Yes, you read it correctly, Shane-O-Mac is back! Vince McMahon's son made a surprise return to WWE last month after a 10-year absence. He stated that Vince's daughter Stephanie McMahon and her husband HHH (triple-H) had been running the company slowly into the ground over the past two years and he demanded ownership of Monday Night Raw. Vince agreed on one condition: that Shane faces and beats an opponent of Vince's choice at WrestleMania. This opponent turned out to be Undertaker. Although the confrontation sounds very nice on paper, it is still highly unclear to fans why Undertaker would let himself be used in such a way by Vince and the WWE creative team still have a bit of work ahead of them this week to make the pieces fit.

* The WWE World Heavyweight Title match: HHH versus Roman Reigns. This is a bit of a dodgy one. If you have not been following WWE in recent years, you may not know that they reunited the two main titles a few years ago after it got split into two titles back in 2002 during the Raw vs Smackdown battles. So there is now only one WWE top title again instead of two. Roman Reigns after the break-up of the Shield has been pushed very heavily by WWE as the new top guy behind John Cena, as Cena isn't getting any younger and gets more and more injury prone. The fans however really don't like this blatantly obvious push and have been booing it all the way, which is really bad for a guy who is supposed to be the new face of the company. So they had to make some last-minute adjustments in previous years to avoid destroying the poor guy completely. Reigns was in last year's WM main title match as well, when he took on reigning champion Brock Lesnar. All the fans thought that WWE would gift Reigns the title then, but Seth Rollins intervened and cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on the night to become the new (heel) champion. Reigns was in a feud with him for a bit until Seth got his injury. Recently he was pushed hard again and he even briefly held the title for about a week or so. But then HHH (the CEO of the company) made Reigns put up his title in the Royal Rumble, which is the first time ever that a title was contested between 30 contenders. HHH inserted himself into the Royal Rumble match and won it after eliminating Reigns and Ambrose, so he is currently the reigning champion. Everyone expects Reigns to win the title again at this WM. However, if he does, there is a serious chance that the crowd will massively boo him out of the building, which would be very bad for WWE. so the expectation is that Reigns will heel-turn either on the night or on next day's Raw. either that, or something unexpected will happen to turn the match on its head.

So a few very intriguing matches to watch out for, especially the Undertaker and the HHH matches, which have massive storyline implications for the rest of the year.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 21 March 2016 - 03:29 PM

[Gorefest]

Oh, I forgot the Intercontinental title match! It will be an awesome one as well. Currently it stands as champion Kevin Owens (absolutely amazing wrestler) versus AJ Styles (the top guy at TNA until he quit and came to WWE in January), but I suspect that they will turn this match into a 3-way or maybe even a fatal 4-way by adding Dolph Ziggler to the card and maybe someone like Stardust (Cody Rhodes) or Jericho. I would have said Neville, but he sustained a leg fracture last week on Raw in a match with Jericho.

[Aptorian]

Sheamus is incredibly white. I watched an episode of NXT in the weekend with a tag team called the Vaudevillains. One of them, Aiden English looked like a black and white photograph with blue pants.

This picture doesn't quite do it justice but wrestling a black guy he stood out like a ghost:



I watched Wrestlemania 7 over the weekend. Miss Elizabeth was reunited with Macho Man after he lost to the Ultimate Warrior. Seeing her chuck Sensational Sherri, that skank, out of the ring was so satisfying. It appears that they got married later.

Also WM7 had the fight between the Million Dollar Man and Virgil. Seeing Virgil knock out Ted DiBease in the Royal Rumble a month before was amazing.

This was also the first Wrestlemania with Undertaker. He was introduced in the Survivor Series but this was the first time you got to see him just utterly destroy an opponent. Really awesome.

This post has been edited by Apt: 21 March 2016 - 06:53 PM

[Aptorian]

I love wrestling:

[Andorion]

Didn't Stone Cold bring in a sewage truck once?

[acesn8s]

I know he brought a beer truck.

[Gorefest]

And a cement truck.

[Gorefest]

Gorefest, on 21 March 2016 - 03:32 PM, said:

Oh, I forgot the Intercontinental title match! It will be an awesome one as well. Currently it stands as champion Kevin Owens (absolutely amazing wrestler) versus AJ Styles (the top guy at TNA until he quit and came to WWE in January), but I suspect that they will turn this match into a 3-way or maybe even a fatal 4-way by adding Dolph Ziggler to the card and maybe someone like Stardust (Cody Rhodes) or Jericho. I would have said Neville, but he sustained a leg fracture last week on Raw in a match with Jericho.

Wow, i stand corrected. AJ Styles to face Jericho, and also announced yesterday a 7-man ladder match for the intercontinental title! Kevin Owens vs Ziggler vs the Miz vs sammi Zayn vs Zack Ryder vs Stardust vs Sin Cara. Sin Cara clearly taking the spot of Neville. Nice one.

[Gorefest]

Unbelievable. I may have just witnessed the worst wrestlemania ever. WWE creative and/or Vince seem intent on defecating all over their fanbase. Well done Vince, maybe it's time to shelf my Network subscription for a while. Until, say, all the current superstars and nineties 'legends' who seem unwilling to let go of their past glory are replaced by the NXT development crew and Vince himself has permanently retreated to his summer home in Tibet.

[Andorion]

Gorefest, on 04 April 2016 - 04:19 AM, said:

Unbelievable. I may have just witnessed the worst wrestlemania ever. WWE creative and/or Vince seem intent on defecating all over their fanbase. Well done Vince, maybe it's time to shelf my Network subscription for a while. Until, say, all the current superstars and nineties 'legends' who seem unwilling to let go of their past glory are replaced by the NXT development crew and Vince himself has permanently retreated to his summer home in Tibet.

Didn't watch. What happened?

[Gorefest]

Lots of potentially great matches, lots of potentially great storylines, and then booked in such a way that almost all of them had the worst possible outcome. It was painful.
Highlights: great women's match with new women's title belt and name, but bleh ending with predictable Flair intervention and no title change; Zack Ryder winning the IC title; shane mcmahon jumping from the top of a Cell through the announcer's table.
Sad depths of misery and terror: Wyatt family being pointlessly buried yet again to boost the Rock and a return-from-injury Cena (as if they need putting over), predictable Reigns win that absolutely everybody saw coming a mile away and nobody wants, Taker winning and in the process basically making the past two months utterly pointless despite Wwe themselves in storyline mode admitting that their product was going stale and dead (wtf, that's not even meta anymore), terribly disappointing ambrose vs brock 'street fight', AJ and New Day losing without any return. Overall meh.
This is the perfect summary of the state of the WWE today:
https://youtu.be/1H5WF4geaD0

[Aptorian]

Just ignored the above posts assuming there are spoilers in there. Please put any results in a spoiler box if you're discussing WM32.

I am sitting and watching the first match now. I might be showing my age here but as I am watching this 6 way ladder match, all that is going through my head is... "Oh boy, this seems really unsafe, somebody should call OSHA.".

Also I am starting to like Kevin Owens. I think he looks like a human garbage bag but he's fun to watch.

[Aptorian]

Watched it all. I have to agree with the above sentiment. Maybe it's because I don't follow Smackdown or Raw, but I just didn't really see anything particularly "earth shattering" about the biggest event of the year. Most interesting was the Shane vs Undertaker match but I don't think they ever really properly sold the David vs Goliath angle.

Spoiler

Imagine if they'd waited two years and booked an Undertaker loss to Shane McMahon. That would have been a crazy push.

As it was Undertaker just looked old and fat and out of breath.

However I really liked the Divas fight. In fact, watching Royal Rumble and WE32, I am surprised to say that the women are the most interesting and technically impressive wrestlers.

I love the New Day. They are so dumb but I can't help but like them. They are sort of like a musical version of Hacksaw Jim Dugan.

I have no idea what the Rock was doing at WM32. What the fuck was the point of the flamethrower bit?

Spoiler

The Rock doesn't wrestle so what is the point of making the supposedly most dangerous heel team job to him and Cena? It's not like they can gain more heat from attacking The Rock.

The HHH vs Roman Reigns match was so strange. I know the fans are fickle but I really do get the impression Roman Reigns would work much, much better as a Heel or Anti-face sort of character. I mean he looks like a Villain already.

This post has been edited by Apt: 04 April 2016 - 06:53 PM

[Coco with marshmallows]

Apt, on 04 April 2016 - 06:52 PM, said:

The HHH vs Roman Reigns match was so strange. I know the fans are fickle but I really do get the impression Roman Reigns would work much, much better as a Heel or Anti-face sort of character. I mean he looks like a Villain already.

The fans aren't fickle. They just dislike being told who they're supposed to root for, when the person they're supposed to root for isn't that good.

Reigns was the least talented member of the Shield, but it wasn't obvious how bad he was because Ambrose and Rollins made up for him.

Since having to stand on his own two feet?

It really says something when at WRESTLEMANIA you have to mute the crowd reactions.....

[Gorefest]

Well, at least they managed to salvage the train wreck somewhat on Raw. Thank the gods, because I already got my tickets for Raw and Smackdown in London so I'd like to feel at least a modicum of excitement leading up to that.

Raw spoilers

Spoiler

Shane was allowed to host this Raw and it seems they're asking the fans for approval ratings on their site. So there is still a possible angle there. Got a truckload of NXT guys coming up as well, they must have depleted half the NXT roster in one swoop! So we now got Baron Corbin, Apollo Crews, Enzo and Cass, Emma and Eve Marie through. And on Smackdown they will debut the Vaudevillains. Still no Finn, Samoa Joe, or Bayley though....

And an incredible main event to decide the new number one contender for Roman's belt between Jericho, Kevin Owens, AJ Styles and the return of Cesaro!!! And AJ Styles taking that one as well, that salvages his loss at WM a bit.

So AJ Styles to face Roman, who is slowly heel-turning (the only realistic option left to him with all the insane boos), probably at Payback. Neat. There may be hope still.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 05 April 2016 - 11:11 PM