Laz

"Hip and current" and "references to the past" are not mutually exclusive. Hell, Seth MacFarlane built an empire around making jokes about things from the '80s.

I like how referencing the most infamous assassination in US history is "dated."

Welcome to most "nerd" media post-Scream. A little self awareness is fine but going overboard with it is just an excuse for shit writing/booking/performing/etc.

You can recommend Heathers over most current wrestling products, though.

Vampiro used a different kind of face paint. I'm going to guess a grease paint type, judging by its consistency and how rarely it would come off. That's what KISS and the corpsepaint wearing black metal bands wear, anyway, and that stuff rarely even gets thin during stage shows. I was a Vamp fan in WCW. I even enjoy the super shitty feud with Mike Awesome and their Halloween Havoc 2000 match. He had (still has, actually) a kind of awkward charisma to him that his sloppiness actually enhanced, and his entrance was a highlight of any card he was on. That "doped up zombie" swagger, if you will.

I remember a coworker of my mother's in 1998 actually graduated with Mero and he came by for the 20-year reunion. Story was that he was a massive asshole even growing up. "Marvelous" Marc is my favorite gimmick of his, and I think there's a bit of untapped potential to him, but comparisons to Bagwell seem fair to me.

That was a different product in a different culture in a different time, though. The point of contention is less "everybody is a rival" and more "less thought is given to women."

As I posted elsewhere about their exclusion from 2k16 being ridiculous: All the demand you need to know is that the NXT audience, by and large, love the Women's division. The Women's title is probably more important than the NXT Championship in the eyes of most, and if that doesn't say something about how completely fucking ass-backwards the line of thinking that allows Baron "where do I put my arms" Corbin to get a slot but not Sasha "possibly the best pound-for-pound talent under contract right now" Banks? Ugh...

Not a terrible show by any means but nothing fantastic. Ending it on a sour note with Cena being Captain Hammer levels of douche and KANE SAVES THE DAY keep the WCW feelings coming on my end.

EDIT: Double post.

ROH has been clueless about most things since Pearce had the book and it's only amped up since Sinclair bought them out.

I lost interest just reading the PBP from y'all when I saw ANX. Rhett Titus kills every match I've seen him in.

There's really no reason to not be taping and running the occasional angle or title change on house shows. If a rinky dink bingo hall could do it 20 years ago in the event that something worthwhile might happen then the biggest company in the history of the business can.

I think they're missing out on not having Seth Rollins pull a Seth Putnam and get all "sensitive." A promo about getting athlete's foot showering at Hunter's would be great.

Meh. At least Varg was never in a glam band. I don't think people want it to be an indie pop/electronic extravaganza every week, with the themes changing on a whim, but it can't hurt to update the style. Vince and co are usually behind the curve, anyway, but having a few people whose jobs are to analyze current trends in pop culture really can't hurt.

Double post. Whoops.

Most mainstream media has. Movies are EXPLOSIONS AND SLOW MO AND CHOSEN ONE and music is the same beat and auto tuned garbage. Almost everything is stale bubblegum. I think we're going to see a turnaround in quality in a few years. Methinks the kids are really beginning to want content rather than fluff again.

That was him.

Does he market a "if you ain't white then you ain't right" shirt, too?

Balor's entrance is incredible because it sounds like a Ghost track and I don't even care for Ghost.

the old metal snobs i used to occasionally socialize with would say "Pantera is real metal?" LOLZ. As opposed to? Slayer, Exodus (I'm thoroughly amazed "Toxic Waltz" hasn't been used), Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Venom, Bathory, Mayhem, Death, Morbid Angel, Dying Fetus, Exhumed, Suffocation, Disgorge, Skinless, Cryptopsy, Anaal Nathrakh, etc. As far as real metal goes, post-Cowboys Pantera has far more in common with crap like Trapt than they do Carcass (and I like Pantera). The sentiment, though, is accurate. ECW's use of modern music helped them stand out and there's no excuse to not ask the talent what they listen to or at least have the music department pay attention to the charts. Agree with the hate of video game entrances. Dana is one of the best examples of why it's terrible, her little dance routine done a dozen times in the course of a minute or two. Of course, she's also terrible all around, but that's another issue.

Seconding Grado. When you can get a group of drunken scots to sing along to "Like a Prayer" at a wrestling show primarily based on hardcore brawls? You're doing it right.

I don't think it's that we necessarily want everybody to be a heel as it is most talent are able to show their strengths more as heels. Heels are typically the focal point of an angle and in control of the match so they also are allotted the most time to develop as both performers and characters. How often has a shoot interview included something along the lines of "it's easier to make people hate you than love you"?

Just to fuel the fire of electronic music not being "tough" music, here is legendary DJ Paul Oakenfold: Here is legendary Pantera/Down frontman Phil Anselmo: Who are you more likely to stay away from if they're angry based on immediate perception? This says nothing to quality or taste, but electronic music has a very different feel to it from both the appearances of its artists and the scene around it than heavy music does. Get on the floor at a rave and you're going to dance, get on the floor at a metal show and you'll likely catch an elbow to the face. That type of perception has been around for over 30 years at this point and I don't see it changing any time soon. There absolutely needs to be more diversity to music used. Even if Vince is very much a cock rock kinda guy (according to Court Bauer, he's all about AC/DC and Kid Rock), not everybody likes that, and plenty of people these days don't care for it one bit.

Similarly to geography or language, I learned about a ton of bands I still listen to via wrestling. Raven, especially, can be blamed, because I initially thought the Nevermore shirt he wore was his but then discovered it was a band, which led me down the path of "underground" metal (quoted due to them being virtually mainstream).