iamthedoctor

Last thing I watched was the Smackdown in 1999 when Steve Austin made his return after the Buried Alive Tag Match.

For someone who hasent followed WWE properly since 2008 time whats the best way to get back into it? From time to time Id check out odd clip if a old fav has come back but generally not impressed with either Shield or Wyatts. The only time I did watch a PPV match in full was probably the Rumble 2014 match but skipped the other matches and id say the Andre Battle Royale and the 2 Bryan mania matches I saw. Aside from that I havent watched anything recent.

For me it was when they did that farce in 1997 because it really degraded the belt by tossing it in the river. If I had been asked the same question for the Euro belt would have said the same period of time because of how Shawn & Hunter just made a mockery of things in that Dec 97 match.

As far as I know, what was around before was dubbed with Japanese commentary from the Encyclopedia of Pro Wrestling set (which I have). The VQ is nothing like this though, and of course a lot of this has original announcing. There are also quite a few matches uploaded that aren't on that set. --- Also, I really object to this idea that I don't like any matwork or guys working holds. It's just not true. I have many hours of audio reviews of me praising matwork, and a thread on Dory Funk Jr matches in which I've commented on smooth matwork many times. I just 1) don't think Backlund is very interesting on the mat and 2) don't care at all for UWF shoot style and 3) do like a suplex or two. I will not countenance casual swipes! Not for me. The set I picked up 8 or so years ago didnt have any Japanese commentary. Cant remember who I bought from but the quality was fantastic for 1950s footage. I could have sworn though I saw similar footage being sold through Amazon.

I think the majority of this stuff has been out there for a good 8 or so years alough I didnt recognise the Rogers/Thesz match and as to how much of this stuff is out there I know there are 45 disks worth of footage.

Around the late 1990s was there any other wrestling company aside from WWF & WCW that did PPVs on a regular basis?

I would say yes. It was a huge factor that contributed to the Hardcore style you saw over the years in the 2 major companies. I had garnered some slight interest in ECW Id say around 1994 time when a UK magazine Powerslam covered it with pics and man did they look bloody, reading about Barbed Wire Bats & Glass fists got my attention then there was a guy who was selling tapes of the show and I ordered 1 or 2 shows. I think the first show I got was the one where Richards & Luna squared off in a Cage possibly one of the Heatwaves. Many look at it as a indy show but with PPVs they had Id say it was good enough to be a top major company which it did get labelled at one time as one of the big 3 ie the other two being WWF & WCW.

For me the only thing I hated about Austin's change from WCW when he wrestled to WWF's version of the Stone Cold character was he was more of a brawler and used more closed fists in matches. Probably because he was limited or not I dont know why but his wrestling skills in WCW were alot better than WWF.

I always felt Rock had a better reception with fans during the Attitude era. While Stone Cold got some great reactions during 98/99 but once he had gone apart from the Backlash 2000 cameo once he came back he didnt get the same as what he once did.

While Bret may call himself the Best there is I always felt Ric was the far more established better wrestler. Looking back at Bret's World title run in 1992 - 1993 it didnt really sound as good as what it was in comparison to Ric holding the NWA belt in the 80s/90s. Only thing I did find odd was why did they put Flair/Bret World title change on a house show that just happened to be recorded for Coliseum Home Video? It kinda ruined the element of suprise because we knew who won time it was shown because they kept hogging out about Bret taking the belt before they even showed the match which was something of a downer. Some fans claim it aired on Prime Time which it didnt, they never showed any highlights on TV before the CHV version came out did they? Would have made sense to book the match for SNME in October.