Cross Face Chicken Wing

Why not run w/ the Rock as the uppity star who is bigger than wrestling? Hasn't his character always been uppity and big-time, but in a cool and clever sort of way? I'm not saying they should turn Rock full-fledged heel with an arrogant Hollywood gimmick, but having him (in a little bit more of a heel manner) play up the fact that yeah, he's a big-time star and bigger than Cena ever will be is better than trading insults laced with swear words and references to each other's genitals. Plus it might get them closer to that 50-50 split they're supposedly looking for.

Why did I just waste 10 minutes of my life watching this?

I was at Raw tonight and Ziggler hitting the table looked so nasty that we never really noticed Barrett being down until a few minutes later. Ziggler must be fine, though, since he came back out and wrestled Punk in a dark match. Man, this was my first live wrestling event in about 15 years. I went with my non-wrestling fan wife and we both had a good time. Setting the bar low, albeit for different reasons, helped make the show more enjoyable.

Ok, stupid question time: I don't follow modern WWE much and I haven't been to a live show in 15 years. I'm going to Raw next week and the ticket says the show starts at 7:15 (45 minutes before it goes on TV). I'm assuming there are dark matches until it goes live? Or is it other nonsense?

I think this is the one you're talking about http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?show...t=0&start=0 That's the one. Thanks. I'm definitely stockpiling a nice stash of unwatched wrestling. If the plague ever hits and everyone gets bored after locking themselves in their bedrooms, I'll be happily catching up on 100s of discs of unwatched footage.

Was there a previous thread on people's wrestling watching habbits? For example, I used to stick to only one project at a time -- if I started a wrestler comp, I kept watching it until I finished before starting another one. I've gotten over that and am now into watching entire seasons of one promotion (currently on '89 NWA and starting 90 WWF soon) while mixing in discs from various comps. I thought there was a previous thread on this issue, but I couldn't find it.

EDIT: Post deleted. Wrong thread.

I always felt babyface Hogan treated selling like we treat a trip to the dentist. We don't want to go to the dentist, but we know it's good for us in the long run so we put on a fake smile and tolerate it. It's just part of life. Hogan would've liked to run over whomever he was in the ring with, but deep down, he knew he had to sell a little bit at certain points of the match. It's just part of wrestling. In other words, I always thought it looked like Hogan was being forced to sell. He never drew people in because fans sympathized with him thanks to his selling. People wanted to see the entrance, the persona, the posing, the big leg drop, slamming a big fat guy, etc, and they knew all of that was coming. The part where Hogan sells for a bit was kind of like an intermission during a play or a commercial break right before a major plot twist in a TV show.

For one reason or another, these are the matches that have stuck in my head ever since I started watching wrestling. I don't know if I'd say they're my favorite matches, or the best matches, but for whatever reason, they have meaning for me. Kamala vs. (Insert name of jobber). I can never get enough Kamala. I'd start the show with Kamala and Kim Chee doing their schtick and squashing a jobber. 1st Wargames (Bash 87). I would import the incredibly hot crowd from this match into my dream card as well. Bret vs. Owen (Summer Slam 94). I’d replace the Wargames chain-link cell with big blue for this masterpiece. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada (2/26/89) My No. 1 match from the All Japan set, the best 15 discs of wrestling ever compiled. Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne (Spring Stampede '94). Growing up, a friend of my dad's always sent over copies of the newest WWF PPVs. One day he sent over Spring Stampede instead, which introduced me to Mick Foley and a different sort of wrestling than I was used to. Wahoo McDaniels vs. Manny Fernandez (the AWA match that headlined the high school gym in my small town in the late 80s). Ahhh, the nostalgia. Steve Regal vs. Brian Pillman (Spring Stampede). Regal's chicken-shit antics always cracked me up and left a lasting impression. Terry Gordy vs. Killer Khan (Texas Death Match). 11-22-84 from the Texas set. The entire Texas set made me a huge fan of Gordy and this was my favorite match. Savage vs. Steamboat (WM3). Obvious reasons for this one. Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (Hell in a cell). Good God Michaels is broken in half!! Terry Funk vs. Sabu (Born to be Wired). My high school buddies and me watched this one after we scored a case of beer from one of our dad's fridges. First time I saw a no rope, barbed wire match. Great Sauske vs. Chris Benoit (Super J Cut '94). This is the card that introduced me to Japanese wrestling. I must have watched a bootleg copy of this show 50 times in high school. Royal Rumble 92. This is probably breaking the rules, but I can't leave this one off. So....not sure if this card makes any sense whatsoever, but I could die happy after watching it. Edit: Actually, I know this card makes no sense whatsoever, but it was fun to come up with

I'm not sure I agree w/ the clone talking point either. To me it's more about the lack of excitement and blandness of the product. Raw is a scripted television show, but it shouldn't feel like a scripted television show. It feels too much like an episode of Two and a Half Men.

I bought tix for Raw in Feb. so I started watching the current product last night to try and figure out what was going on. I also tried getting back into it when the Rock returned before last year's Wrestlemania, but it was so bad that I only lasted a few weeks. There's more hope this time around.....but not much. The only people on last night's show that I can see myself being remotely interested in for an extended period of time are Punk, Bryan, and the dancing funky fat guy. Obviously, the older guys like Rock, Jericho, Taker and Foley will keep me interested, but they'll be gone again in due time. Also, John Laurinatis is a good character, but I really don't give a shit whether he's Raw general manager or not. Finally, what was with the nauseating Rock video package they showed? Good Lord, why not just bring the Rock into the ring so the WWE can give him a company blow job. One more thing....does the WWE still pipe in crowd noise? The crowd heat actually seemed good last night, but it seemed like a lot of the noise was piped in.

Does the crazy old lady who sat in the front row at Portland shows and got all bent out of shape whenever Buddy Rose would pull an opponent's hair or mouth off in the late 70s/early 80s count as a hardcore fan? I particularly enjoy whenever she gets out of her seat, starts pounding on the ring, and has to be gently reminded by a fat security guard to sit back down. The crazy old lady fans who legitimately went nuts on the heels probably don't fit the definition of a hardcore fan that Loss laid out in the original post, but it'd still be fun to turn back the clock and talk wrestling with some of these ladies. I could just picture someone like my grandmother summarizing the previous night's local card while having a few drinks and getting all wound up.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, so I'll just say it: Kim Chee. Watching him try to handle Kamala and convince him to actually wrestle instead of trying to eat his opponent or the ref cracks me up every time.

My wife is not into wrestling at all. If she was, there's no way I would've married her She really wanted to go to Raw for some reason, though. It'll be fun.

Raw is coming to town on Feb. 20 and the wife really wanted to go so I caved and bought tickets. Since I don't follow the current product much any more, I have a question: When do they really kick the angles and hype for Wrestlemania into gear? I see it's on April 1 this year, so is it possible that the Feb. 20 Raw could have the Rock and other high-end stuff since it's the the first show post-Elimination Chamber w/ WM the next PPV on the horizon?

I'm watching the complete 1989 season of the NWA. I'm a couple of weeks past Clash VI and they finally moved WCW Saturday Night out of the old TV studio and into a bigger and more modern space. In addition to the great work from Flair and Steamboat, I'm really loving Rick Steiner, the Great Muta, Dick Murdoch, Jim Cornette, Paul E., and Michael Hayes on color commentary. I've heard Steamboat say in shoots a few times that he was disappointed they didn't give him a longer run w/ the belt. Regardless of how long of a run he got, they sure as hell didn't do much with him when he had the belt. He wasn't even on TV for three weeks after he won it, and all he's done after Clash IV is beat Ron Simmons and give some generic mailed-in taoed promos.

I had the same feelings on Tenryu during the AJ set. His pre-1987 stuff kind of made me scratch my head and wonder why everyone thought he was so great. Then 1987 hits and you see it. Tenryu in 1987-89 is like a great band that gets accused of not having any stage presence. When you're great, you don't need to run around the stage, leap off the PA system and play guitar solos behind your head.

It's unfortunate if this is true. I'm sure Loss or Bix had a post like this in mind for their parody site. It's like Ric Flair is stealing their material by just being Ric Flair.

LOL at the "Ric Flair Shocked to Learn he can Earn Interest by Saving Money" bit