anarchistxx

Hard to say. There are less memorable and unique and diverse characters, and that in turn makes the matches less memorable. Also, feuds are booked in a very linear, repetitive way now, at least in mainstream wrestling, so you are less likely to be excited and thus remember the match. There is also a drive to produce more and more content in all areas of entertainment and media, so huge matches that could be saved twenty years ago and built into a huge, memorable occasion are tossed off these days time and time again because they need to fill all the time. An analogy would be jounalism - how often do you read an informed, fascinating piece of writing in the mainstream media? Hardly ever. If you read a journal or publication from fifty or a hundred years ago the standard is far higher - because journalists today are under pressure to churn out more and more content so resort to click bait or lists or just lazy, tossed off pieces. Attention spans are more transient now, declining all the time, so we tend to forget things much quicker. We also tend to multitask, talking about wrestling online at the same time as watching it, texting on our phones, browsing the internet while viewing television. Before, the show could commans your full attention so things got embedded in your memory more. If this phenomena is occuring there are many reasons for it.

Incredible. As Wikipedia deadpans: Sting then teamed with WCW newcomer Davey Boy Smith to beat the team of Vader and Vicious at Beach Blast in a match that was set up by a mini-movie in which an evil midget blew up Sting's boat. Only in WCW.

HHH is probably needed for Wrestlemania season, as much as it pains me to say it. A better way to bring him back might have been as a surprise Royal Rumble participant as a wrestler, since he is still employed just no longer as 'the authority'.

I have managed to skip through anything involving The Ascension since the first promo aired. Haven't watched more than a few minutes of Tthat awful group with Kofi, K-Kwik and Big E either, since when did happy, smiling, colorfully dressed babyfaces work since the 80s? Once Michael Cole starts throwing in his canned laughter and telling us how 'fun' it is with a fake inane grin you know it is time to throw in the towel. WWE has no clue how to debut undercard and midcard acts. You can see that with Bo Dallas, Fandango and Adam Rose. Same boring scthick week after week after tedious week until creative concludes it 'isn't working' and they get jobbed out, put in comedy angles and either released or rebranded. Rinse and repeat.

And why are WWE running Reigns vs Rollins so early as a random match on Raw with a bullshit finish that everyone saw coming? Roman Reings shuld be protected, they should be saving all the big matches and having him win competetive squashs. That is if they have him work on television at all. Twenty minute throwaway matches on Raw are completely counterproductive. They used to protect matchups by having multiman tags as commonplace, but that seems to have been phased out. One good thing about Evolution era Raw was that they could have big matches every week without blowing the big 1 v 1 megabouts that should be saved for PPV with a build.

Didn't Edge spend years fighting John Cena and pulling all sorts of dastardly tricks to endanger his career? Makes zero sense that John Cena would risk it all for him, they didn't even play up a holier than thou 'forgive thy enemies' type deal to it. Just a promo earlier in the show about how much he 'respects' the guy who tried to destroy and humiliate him for years. I got a kick out of the champagne hug linking arms at the end though.

How many of us even watched that? I didn't, had zero clue about his past with reality television except what was brought up on screen. Wrestlers have overcome worse perceptions than that to look a threat.

Not a fair comparison at all. HBK had a lot more believable offence, dives that could conceivably take down a bigger opponent. He was sold as being more athletic and quick, able to absorb huge amounts of punishment and come out of nowhere with a devastating kick or a cross body or a flash pin. He wasn't afraid to take a huge risk to win the match. Which of these attributes does Miz possess? It does come down partly to booking. That isn't the only reason though - Shawn carried himself like a threat, someone who could go toe to toe with bigger wrestlers, who had the smarts and ability to take them out even though he lacked size and power.

The biggest problem Miz has is that he doesn't look like a threat, especially at main event level. He doesn't carry himself like a threat either. Even when you are playing a weasly, cowardly, fluky champion you need to seem like you can be dangerous and take advantage of mistakes. I don't find him remotely interesting, entertaining or believable, although he is a good ambassador for the company.

I preferred Bret/Owen to Bret/Flair.

Bray Wyatt has been protected more than most. He went over Daniel Bryan clean who subsequently beat HHH, Orton & Batista in the same night. he has just beat Dean Ambrose clean twice, who was one of the hardest pushed faces of the summer. He defeated Jericho clean.

That is true about Cesaro. When he first came to ROH zero people were talking about him as a potential breakout star. The argument is probably that he improved massively in WWE, which is true. But to me his true level is of a solid midcard workhorse who will always be over, always put on good matches and be a very good IC Champion, if that belt meant anything any longer. Someone for the likes of Roman Reigns to feud with on their way to the top of the card. Due to appalling booking, guys on that level don't tend to exist anymore. It is all or nothing for WWE creative. They have undoubtedly mishandled Cesaro.

That would make sense if they didn't do it with every single of their upper mid carders every few months. It isn't just building these people up for Rusev. Swagger's last push can be perhaps explained away like that. The others? They have been pushed and depushed to baffling extremes with no consistency whatsoever. Even Jack Swagger himself went from a massive push to champion to massive depush jobbing to everyone, to massive push with Wrestlemania title match to massive depush jobbing to everyone to big push to build him up for Rusev to jobbing to jobbing to everyone. What a pointless, uncreative cycle.

WWE booking is so disjointed and bizarre. They push Jack Swagger massively as a threat to Rusev over the summer and a month or two later he is jobbing in a few minutes to Fandango...another guy who got a huge push for a few months before jobbing to the entire roster in short, pointless television matches. This ridiculous pattern of events happens again and again and again. Someone like Dolph Ziggler is a prime example of someone who is pushed as a big star one month and then jobs every week to nobodies the next. The inconsistency is appalling. Ryback? Exactly the same. Dean Ambrose is going to have a hard time becoming a top guy. The promo material they give him is utterly appalling - he has gone from this wild, natural character to someone putting on contrived facial expressions and exaggerated mannerisms and reading an awful script. Nothing feels believable anymore. Doesn't help that he is stuck with the heat pit that is Bray Wyatt - his matches are almost always met with silence (or 'a hushed aura' as Michael Cole might put it). It is made worse by the fact that he is almost always in gimmick matches, where the fan is are usually silent anyway until the big dives and weapon shots come into play.

It is hard to judge how good anyone is on the mic based on the awful scripts they get given. Bryan Danielson regurgitating catchphrases, lame jokes and contrived putdowns is awkward as hell - him ripping on fans in ROH was natural, funn and entertaining. Agree that a lot of the current IWC aren't really the best judge of who will make a top guy. The hype for Bray Wyatt on this forum baffled me.

Think I meant the ECWA tournament in 2001 in my earlier post having flash checked the results. Both had Ki/Dragon in the final.

APW King Of The Indies 2001 will always hold a place in my heart, even though it is probably very dated now [Think this is the tournment I'm thinking of - had a disc of it with Ki/Dragon going about forty in the main event, some matches are clipped IIRC]. AJW Dreamrush has to be up there as well, fantastic card from top to bottom and got me hooked on Joshi for a little while. There are also random shows that I really dig that usually coincided with the height of my fandom - watched the 18/09/05 NOAH show about five times. KENTA/SUWA stole the show but there is also a ridiculously fun tag with Kobashi/Taue taking on Hashi and a grumpy as fuck Akiyama. Misawa vs Rikio for the GHC, a very young Morishima vs Marifuji, Yone vs Suzuki, a really cool six man. Great show.

Ricky Steamboat? Mick Foley?

Don't see why they have to get the title of Lesnar before Wrestlemania. Brock is the top heel. The top heel generally jobs to the top face at Wrestlemania. Go figure. Makes zero sense running Cena vs Reigns now. If Reigns is the guy they want to coronate, it makes 100% sense that he would defeat the biggest monster in the company.

So they can feel like a legitimate 'entertainment' operation rather than a sleazy wrestling company. Vanity and perception, basically.

Wasn't the Rey v. Eddy storyline in 2005 a huge draw with the Hispanic audience? As a television attraction. Summerslam 2005 did a massive buyrate but it was with Hogan/Michaels headlining. Great American Bash and Judgement Day sold pretty averagely with Rey vs Eddie as one of the marquee matches.

As for Wrestlemania plans, they might be best to hold off on Reigns and have him get a decisive victory over Rollins to finally put that angle to bed, and then build him up as the successor over the next twelve months before challenging Cena for the strap in 2016. As an offhand card: Daniel Bryan vs Brock Lesnar - WWE Title John Cena vs The Undertaker [Retirement Match] Triple-H vs Sting Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins Randy Orton vs Rusev Nicki Bella vs Brie Bella vs AJ vs Paige [Divas Title] Sheamus vs Bray Wyatt Tag Title Match Fuck knows what you do with Ambrose. Mark Henry? Very dependent on injuries and availability though, and whether they can bring themself to give DB the big moment two years straight. It was only very begrudgingly they did it last year.

Last night was as prime a reason as you can get for Raw only running two hours. Decent opening segment with Cena cutting his most natural, enjoyable promo in a long time. Then you have ninety minutes of complete garbage to fast forward before the slightly more interesting Heyman/Jericho and Mizdow stuff [hate Miz but it at least seems to have a direction and storyline to it]. The Divas tag wasn't bad, although the wrong team won - The Bella Twins should be dominating the division. The main event delivered, really good match. Had to laugh at the hushed, serious tones of commentary when Lesnar & Rollins made their 'dark deal', as though two heels siding together was somehow a shocking twist and turn.

William Regal vs Naked Mideon was a personal highlight of the European Title lineage.

Pretty low. The Roman Reigns backlash seems something of a fallacy - he got a monster pop last night, and if they use him properly will continue to do so. It is just a small subsection of internet fans who feel he isn't ready for a push. He always seems over live. The worst thing they can do it start giving him long, scripted promos with lame jokes and smart ass responses. His appearances should be kept short and impactful. When Batista returned he was never over, people didn't give a shit from the start. Also, Ambrose isn't nearly as over as Daniel Bryan was. Yeah, this. They don't even know how to work a garbage match either - just a lot of high spots strung together without any build, any tension, any teases. Dean Ambrose doing three elbow drops off the top of a ladder is ridiculous. Jeff Hardy used to sell for the rest of the match after just one of those spots.