Wrestling

Anyone watching Wrestlemania?

Anyone watching Wrestlemania?

Yep. Rock v Cena can't wait.

Wrestling was one of my big memories of being young, even more so than football. Gutted when I found out it was as real as star wars

I stayed up and watched it. Can never understand people who poke fun at wrestling fans by saying it's fake. We all know it's fake but so are films and soaps, and in my opinion the storylines and characters in WWE blow the soaps out of the water!

I stayed up and watched it. Can never understand people who poke fun at wrestling fans by saying it's fake. We all know it's fake but so are films and soaps, and in my opinion the storylines and characters in WWE blow the soaps out of the water!

who won?

Wrestling was one of my big memories of being young, even more so than football. Gutted when I found out it was as real as star wars

Star Wars isn't real?

the rock beat cena and the undertaker beat hhh cm punk is still champion and sheamus is new champ

the rock beat cena and the undertaker beat hhh cm punk is still champion and sheamus is new champ

the rock

wrestling died when Stone Cold and the Rock left. I did pay to watch I think it was wrestlemania last year when the rock came back.
when i was a kid and you cant wait to wake up before school and watch ''livewire'' or RAW on a friday night knowing it finished at midnight and on straight after in on SS1 was the playboy 10min freeview
those days are gone

Wrestling was one of my big memories of being young, even more so than football. Gutted when I found out it was as real as star wars

Star Wars isn't real?

Damn I knew I'd spoilt it for someone

The Rock vs Triple H at Backlash in 2000 is my favourite match of all time, i was lucky enough to witness the attitude era of the WWF. I stopped watching in 2002 and can't believe how shit it's gone tbh, it's painful to watch and cena is just annoying : .

the rock beat cena and the undertaker beat hhh cm punk is still champion and sheamus is new champ

the rock

wrestling died when Stone Cold and the Rock left. I did pay to watch I think it was wrestlemania last year when the rock came back.
when i was a kid and you cant wait to wake up before school and watch ''livewire'' or RAW on a friday night knowing it finished at midnight and on straight after in on SS1 was the playboy 10min freeview
those days are gone

Every generation says this...when I was a kid the old timers said wrestling died when Bruno Sammartino retired. Then 10 years later it was wrestling died when the Old School Territories and their local champions were put out of business by the expanding WWF. Then wrestling died again after Hulk Hogan's first run....then wrestling dies again when the old NWA collapsed then again when the WCW went down, oh and wrestling died again when Stone Cold and the Rock left...I don't think wrestling will ever die, however I think fan interest is evolving and ever changing. What does die is individual intrest, but for every fan that "leaves" another young one comes up to replace him.

In ten years wrestling will die when Orton and Sheamus retire...

I cant watch it now, its like a Soap, the wrestling is still the same but all the backround nonsense spoils it.

the rock beat cena and the undertaker beat hhh cm punk is still champion and sheamus is new champ

the rock

wrestling died when Stone Cold and the Rock left. I did pay to watch I think it was wrestlemania last year when the rock came back.
when i was a kid and you cant wait to wake up before school and watch ''livewire'' or RAW on a friday night knowing it finished at midnight and on straight after in on SS1 was the playboy 10min freeview
those days are gone

Every generation says this...when I was a kid the old timers said wrestling died when Bruno Sammartino retired. Then 10 years later it was wrestling died when the Old School Territories and their local champions were put out of business by the expanding WWF. Then wrestling died again after Hulk Hogan's first run....then wrestling dies again when the old NWA collapsed then again when the WCW went down, oh and wrestling died again when Stone Cold and the Rock left...I don't think wrestling will ever die, however I think fan interest is evolving and ever changing. What does die is individual intrest, but for every fan that "leaves" another young one comes up to replace him.

In ten years wrestling will die when Orton and Sheamus retire...

you make a very good point mate. I cant watch it now, but i reckon if stone cold came back smashin the place up, downing beers and sticking his finger up, i could find the love again

the rock beat cena and the undertaker beat hhh cm punk is still champion and sheamus is new champ

the rock

wrestling died when Stone Cold and the Rock left. I did pay to watch I think it was wrestlemania last year when the rock came back.
when i was a kid and you cant wait to wake up before school and watch ''livewire'' or RAW on a friday night knowing it finished at midnight and on straight after in on SS1 was the playboy 10min freeview
those days are gone

Every generation says this...when I was a kid the old timers said wrestling died when Bruno Sammartino retired. Then 10 years later it was wrestling died when the Old School Territories and their local champions were put out of business by the expanding WWF. Then wrestling died again after Hulk Hogan's first run....then wrestling dies again when the old NWA collapsed then again when the WCW went down, oh and wrestling died again when Stone Cold and the Rock left...I don't think wrestling will ever die, however I think fan interest is evolving and ever changing. What does die is individual intrest, but for every fan that "leaves" another young one comes up to replace him.

In ten years wrestling will die when Orton and Sheamus retire...

I'm 17, and started watching wrestling around 2006 (just after Wrestlemania 22). Watched it exhaustively - every week, every PPV - but by Wrestlemania 24 (2008) I'd started to lose interest and the last WWE show I ever watched - in its entirety that is - was the RAW episode the night after WM 24. Why did I stop? Many reasons, but the main one was the lack of time to watch every episode. I'm the type of person who has to watch every second of every episode, know what I mean? Secondly, the PG era has now taken over and the intense rivalries like Cena-Edge have disappeared. Occasionally I challenged myself to start watching it again, but by then 1 or 2 years had passed and there was no real point in doing so, seeing as I'd lost track of it.

So you could say that I'm a Cena fan (and I am, seeing as I started watching wrestling when he was really prominent), but I knew people like Stone Cold and The Rock; most of the history. But I'm not too bothered who wins anymore because I have no clue who the new people are Last night was good though; HHH v The Undertaker a particular highlight.

Anyone remeber the days of the bushwhackers, Jacke the Snake, Million Dollar Man Ted Dubiasi?

Papa Shango, Donk the clown, Tatanka, Brett the hitman hart, Sean Michaels

That was serious wrestling

Anyone watching Wrestlemania?

My son liked it but grew out of it at around 8 yrs old

flaming ada anybody knows it ain,t a patch on the old british wrestling.i went to watch it once (i was given the ticket).big daddy and the bloke who run the white hart in cannock pat paton(ian stenner) were top of the bill v gaint haystacks.pat paton got thrown into the post about 20x though of course he and big daddy won.went down the hart after and he was showered and pulling pints.the way he,d fly into them steel posts i thought he,d never walk again

There were two bluebirds shown in their shirts at ringside at RAW on Monday in Miami

I have been watching wrestling since the 1970's. This is what I grew up on....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5wRnB-eDC8

Start watching at 2:15...You should know Jerry Lawler, but the blonde named Ferris is the man who will become the Honkeytonk Man. The other blonde Latham would become one of the Moondogs (for you real old timers). Lawler's partner was Bill Dundee who really never made it internationally, but was a legend in the southeastern U.S.

This was when wrestling was serious....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTo44nd8 ... re=related

Oh and you should see this if you like wrestling.....Terry Funk (the hardcore legend) vs. Lawler in the original empty arena match.

there is a part 2 should be easy to find.

I'm not into wrestling and obviously most of it is staged, but fairplay to them wrestlers, they must have to put in some seriously hard hours of training and be totally dedicated in perfecting the timing of their moves! if they were to misjudge some of them throws etc they do on eachother even a tiny fraction, it would be very easy for them to end up breaking there opponents necks, or worse.. kill there opponents! Thoughs wrestlers are extremely big powerful men! If you don't know what your doing in that game, chances are youl end up in a wheelchair sucking your food up through a straw for the rest of yor days pfft have to give them credit for that!

Brock Lesnar is back now. Came back monday on Raw. That was pretty awesome to be fair.

the rock beat cena and the undertaker beat hhh cm punk is still champion and sheamus is new champ

the rock

wrestling died when Stone Cold and the Rock left. I did pay to watch I think it was wrestlemania last year when the rock came back.
when i was a kid and you cant wait to wake up before school and watch ''livewire'' or RAW on a friday night knowing it finished at midnight and on straight after in on SS1 was the playboy 10min freeview
those days are gone

Every generation says this...when I was a kid the old timers said wrestling died when Bruno Sammartino retired. Then 10 years later it was wrestling died when the Old School Territories and their local champions were put out of business by the expanding WWF. Then wrestling died again after Hulk Hogan's first run....then wrestling dies again when the old NWA collapsed then again when the WCW went down, oh and wrestling died again when Stone Cold and the Rock left...I don't think wrestling will ever die, however I think fan interest is evolving and ever changing. What does die is individual intrest, but for every fan that "leaves" another young one comes up to replace him.

In ten years wrestling will die when Orton and Sheamus retire...

Remind us of WWE ratings at the moment. Remind us of WWE + WCW ratings combined during the Monday Night wars.

Wrestling won't die, but it's in a massive decline at the moment, because WWE has become the standard bearer for what "wrestling" is. And it sucks majorly. Endless SuperCena rammed down the throats over the years, the heel turn the corwd reaction to him would almost certainly demand hasn't happened due to merchandise sales. Any major talent hasn't been pushed to the moondue to the HBK-HHH-UT axis who have hogged the limelight for way too long.

Nothing for me would be considered "wrestling" until it touches the level of booking and match quality of NWA around 1989.

the rock beat cena and the undertaker beat hhh cm punk is still champion and sheamus is new champ

the rock

wrestling died when Stone Cold and the Rock left. I did pay to watch I think it was wrestlemania last year when the rock came back.
when i was a kid and you cant wait to wake up before school and watch ''livewire'' or RAW on a friday night knowing it finished at midnight and on straight after in on SS1 was the playboy 10min freeview
those days are gone

Every generation says this...when I was a kid the old timers said wrestling died when Bruno Sammartino retired. Then 10 years later it was wrestling died when the Old School Territories and their local champions were put out of business by the expanding WWF. Then wrestling died again after Hulk Hogan's first run....then wrestling dies again when the old NWA collapsed then again when the WCW went down, oh and wrestling died again when Stone Cold and the Rock left...I don't think wrestling will ever die, however I think fan interest is evolving and ever changing. What does die is individual intrest, but for every fan that "leaves" another young one comes up to replace him.

In ten years wrestling will die when Orton and Sheamus retire...

Remind us of WWE ratings at the moment. Remind us of WWE + WCW ratings combined during the Monday Night wars.

Wrestling won't die, but it's in a massive decline at the moment, because WWE has become the standard bearer for what "wrestling" is. And it sucks majorly. Endless SuperCena rammed down the throats over the years, the heel turn the corwd reaction to him would almost certainly demand hasn't happened due to merchandise sales. Any major talent hasn't been pushed to the moondue to the HBK-HHH-UT axis who have hogged the limelight for way too long.

Nothing for me would be considered "wrestling" until it touches the level of booking and match quality of NWA around 1989.

It's cyclical. It will come back to being cool and when it does the ratings will go up.

You can't compare the ratings to the Monday night wars. There's far more to watch now on TV in America. More channels etc.

HBK didn't hog the limelight too long. He put over so many wrestlers and left at the top of his game. HHH did to a certain extent but his performances justified it. Taker is part time and has been for ages. Taker made Mick Foley and The Rock with his gracious selling to them.

It's cyclical. It will come back to being cool and when it does the ratings will go up.

You can't compare the ratings to the Monday night wars. There's far more to watch now on TV in America. More channels etc.

HBK didn't hog the limelight too long. He put over so many wrestlers and left at the top of his game. HHH did to a certain extent but his performances justified it. Taker is part time and has been for ages. Taker made Mick Foley and The Rock with his gracious selling to them.

HBK didn't hog the limelight? He was notorious for not dropping titles when he felt like it... the whole "I lost my smile" bit with Bret Hart? HHH had two hot years as a heel, rest was pretty much "meh". Taker was always pretty much overrated, the gimmick far more important.

But, at WM, chance to establish new stars, the two headline bouts were between a semi-retired HHH and virtually crippled UT, with HBK making his usual goofy facials, a stale Cena against what could be best described as a part time wrestler.

Bryan Danielson had to job in what 18 seconds, where the title belt was deemed less important than setting up an angle where he dumps his girlfriend as a result!

The booking of WWE has plain sucked for a long, long time. That's why right now I far prefer TNA.

I was really into wrestling back in the 80s and 90s but I started to lose interest when I went to uni and didn't have Sky. This conveniently coincided with when things started to get shit. WWF (I refuse to call it WWE!) was amazing back then because WCW was pushing it all the way. When WWF bought WCW and ECW I really thought it would push things to the next level but it's done the opposite. Of course, no competition means a company can get slack and do what it wants.

I still admire those involved in the industry. I was offered a role as a junior storyline writer with a little known federation called FWA when I was leaving high school but the job requirements would have meant constant travelling, not seeing my family and the pay was pretty poor. It is a job I would have loved but I decided to hit uni instead. Haven't heard much from FWA either so think it was the right idea. The work those involved in wrestling put in is obscene though. Not just the wrestlers but everybody. It's a proper circus community.

I have been tempted to just Sky Plus Raw and Smackdown again but whenever I do I never see two good shows in a row. The decent moments are few and far between. Moments like Lesnar's return last week and Punk's awesome mic talk months back are a rarity when they were commonplace 10-15 years ago.

I'll always have fond memories of wrestling and my proudest moment was watching an event at the CIA about 10 years ago with the ex-legends such as Bret Hart and Scott Steiner doing a show. I shook Bret's hand and said "Vince sucks!" to which Bret gave me a wink and a smile. If wrestling doesn't get any better, it gave me some great memories and at its best was more entertaining than any TV series I've ever watched.

Lesnar's return should have been big, but it failed.

Cena does promo, crowd chanting for Lesnar. Blatently obvious he was present, signed, going to interfere - so rather than expose it by the crowd response to Cena, get him out there, storm into ring, do whatever.

Instead, mugged it for minutes top of the stage then even worse - handshake with Cena, then instantly get him up, hold him there - not moving - for 10 seconds... just horrendously bad booking.

It's cyclical. It will come back to being cool and when it does the ratings will go up.

You can't compare the ratings to the Monday night wars. There's far more to watch now on TV in America. More channels etc.

HBK didn't hog the limelight too long. He put over so many wrestlers and left at the top of his game. HHH did to a certain extent but his performances justified it. Taker is part time and has been for ages. Taker made Mick Foley and The Rock with his gracious selling to them.

HBK didn't hog the limelight? He was notorious for not dropping titles when he felt like it... the whole "I lost my smile" bit with Bret Hart? HHH had two hot years as a heel, rest was pretty much "meh". Taker was always pretty much overrated, the gimmick far more important.

But, at WM, chance to establish new stars, the two headline bouts were between a semi-retired HHH and virtually crippled UT, with HBK making his usual goofy facials, a stale Cena against what could be best described as a part time wrestler.

Bryan Danielson had to job in what 18 seconds, where the title belt was deemed less important than setting up an angle where he dumps his girlfriend as a result!

The booking of WWE has plain sucked for a long, long time. That's why right now I far prefer TNA.

There were dozens of wrestlers of the decades who did not drop titles when they felt like it. Everyone from The Road Warriors, Lou Thesz, Stone Cold, Harley Race, and the entire Mid-Southern Region split into back in 1981 because no one wanted to drop matches to George Gulas.

Nerd, I agree WWE booking has been on the decline, but TNA? Holy Cow, now that's horrible booking. You cannot with a striaght face sell anyone on that. I watch it, always have. My wife and Jeff Jarrett were childhood freinds.

Bryan Danielson maybe talented but he has the charisma of Shelton Benjamin....like it or not charisma = ratings....not in ring ability.

Wrestling may never reach the levels that it did in the 90's but it will live on and ebb and flow, and that's a fact.

It's cyclical. It will come back to being cool and when it does the ratings will go up.

You can't compare the ratings to the Monday night wars. There's far more to watch now on TV in America. More channels etc.

HBK didn't hog the limelight too long. He put over so many wrestlers and left at the top of his game. HHH did to a certain extent but his performances justified it. Taker is part time and has been for ages. Taker made Mick Foley and The Rock with his gracious selling to them.

HBK didn't hog the limelight? He was notorious for not dropping titles when he felt like it... the whole "I lost my smile" bit with Bret Hart? HHH had two hot years as a heel, rest was pretty much "meh". Taker was always pretty much overrated, the gimmick far more important.

But, at WM, chance to establish new stars, the two headline bouts were between a semi-retired HHH and virtually crippled UT, with HBK making his usual goofy facials, a stale Cena against what could be best described as a part time wrestler.

Bryan Danielson had to job in what 18 seconds, where the title belt was deemed less important than setting up an angle where he dumps his girlfriend as a result!

The booking of WWE has plain sucked for a long, long time. That's why right now I far prefer TNA.

There were dozens of wrestlers of the decades who did not drop titles when they felt like it. Everyone from The Road Warriors, Lou Thesz, Stone Cold, Harley Race, and the entire Mid-Southern Region split into back in 1981 because no one wanted to drop matches to George Gulas.

Nerd, I agree WWE booking has been on the decline, but TNA? Holy Cow, now that's horrible booking. You cannot with a striaght face sell anyone on that. I watch it, always have. My wife and Jeff Jarrett were childhood freinds.

Bryan Danielson maybe talented but he has the charisma of Shelton Benjamin....like it or not charisma = ratings....not in ring ability.

Wrestling may never reach the levels that it did in the 90's but it will live on and ebb and flow, and that's a fact.

I'm sorry but when his catchphrase is being chanted by the crowd, not just when he isn't in the ring, but at non WWE events like basketball games, I think it's safe to say Bryan Danielson is easily among the top 3 most over superstars at the moment. He's a heel and the crowd still cheer for him and since he won the title and turned heel, he has had to show his charisma to work the crowd to hit the level of popularity he's currently at. Actually when City won earlier, I was doing his "YES!" catchphrase!

There were dozens of wrestlers of the decades who did not drop titles when they felt like it. Everyone from The Road Warriors, Lou Thesz, Stone Cold, Harley Race, and the entire Mid-Southern Region split into back in 1981 because no one wanted to drop matches to George Gulas.

For different reasons. Road Warriors? Curious on that one, mostly as they never needed titles to be over, but also because thyey were smartened up during their AWA run. Thesz, much different era, where the champ *had* to wrestle to avoid double crosses by promoters - NWA title needed someone to be able to handle themselves in the ring. Race, ditto, to a far lesser degree.

Modern era, you can't argue Stone Cold or HBK failing to drop titles, when titles these days are irrelevant to the presentation, can be compared to any of them.

Please never mention that Gulas name again...

Nerd, I agree WWE booking has been on the decline, but TNA? Holy Cow, now that's horrible booking. You cannot with a striaght face sell anyone on that. I watch it, always have. My wife and Jeff Jarrett were childhood freinds.

Perfect booking, no. Better than WWE's, yes. It's trendy to knock TNA, but there's a lot right with it. Bully Ray as chickenshit heel, done well. Building up Roode as a megaheel champion, done well. Storm as a top contender, done well. Hell, the split up of Beer Money that kicked all that of was, imo, very well done.

Bryan Danielson maybe talented but he has the charisma of Shelton Benjamin....like it or not charisma = ratings....not in ring ability.

Charisma in wrestling isn't the ability to run off catchphrases like Rock or Cena. It's the ability to make things seem believable in ring. Danielson is one of the best in the business as that. Good booking emphasises strengths, hides weaknesses. None of the big companies seem to remember that these days.

Wrestling may never reach the levels that it did in the 90's but it will live on and ebb and flow, and that's a fact.

Don't disagree, but the 90's weren't the apex of wrestling in the US, surely? Hence within the ebb/flow cycle the overall trend is down, and after the WWE expansion in the 80's, the number of places for people to learn to actually work is minimal, hence the cookie cutter WWE "stars".

Right now, the only guy outside the Cena, HHH etc generation you can see carrying WWE would be Dolph Ziggler, who is a real talent. Hence having to go back to the older generation.