Your confessions as a wrestling fan

[artDDP]

I still own a Chris Benoit "Toothless Aggression" T-shirt.

[C.S.]

Some of these have been mentioned already, but they deserve to be seconded (or more):

 

- I love The Miz and think he'll be WWE World Heavyweight Champion again one day. He is the perfect representative for the company.

 

- I loved the Hogan/Slaughter feud, angles and all. I was fascinated by Slaughter's rationale for turning heel. Heel Slaughter was my first favorite wrestler.

 

- I've always loved Bradshaw - as a wrestler. I liked his commentary at first, but he became unbearable when he started (seemingly) going into business for himself and burying people he didn't like - Miz, MVP, ECW wrestlers, etc.

 

- Original undead Undertaker is still my favorite

 

- Dustin/Goldust is the best Rhodes.

 

- LOD and The Steiners are two of the most overrated and underwhelming tag teams I've ever seen.

 

- I dug the fuck out of The Quebecers, The New Foundation, and The New Blackjacks (but hated High Energy, The New Rockers, and The New Midnight Express)

 

- I loved me some Papa Shango, IRS, Repo Man, etc.

 

- Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce ruled

 

- Paul Roma was a good Horseman and good in general (Power and Glory was cool as hell)

 

- The Raven character was always terrible. Scotty Levy was never even remotely convincing in that role.

 

- Stevie Richards is one of the most underrated wrestlers ever.

 

I could go on and on, but that's enough for now.

[RocketCrypt]

I know he has a reputation of being a right bollocks backstage, but I absolutely adore Bob Holly. Always thought he was under appreciated as a wrestler. Terrible promo, but that always added to his charm for me. I was more excited than anyone should have been when he faced Brock for the belt at Royal Rumble in 2004, even though there was no chance he was ever going over. Shame he was back in the lower mid-card just a few months later, slumming it with the likes of Mordecai. I would also recommend his book from a couple of years ago, one of the better ones I've read in a while.

[Badlittlekitten]

I love him as a promo but but . . .

 

Bockwinkel/Robinson is the only Bock match I truly love. And that's largely cos of Billy.

[fakeplastictrees]

I once sat at a round table with some old and new mates (who have girlfriends/wives, etc.) and we were talking about wrestling. We started talking about The Attitude Era and that lead into a conversation about Goldust. 8/10 guys at that table admitted that in 1996 Goldust looked pretty good and they were turned on by him at least one time. Non of this was said in jest and all was said as matter-of-factly as someone telling you the weather. This went into other (less comfortable) conversations about wrestling and then into current MMA and boxing.

 

Next thing you know we are all watching the fight and talking about the fight on PPV and everyone is completely no-selling the conversation that took place about an hour ago.

 

My personal confessions?

 

I ALWAYS thought CM Punk was overrated. When people talked about ROH and I first started to get into indie wrestling, I got the hype behind AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Low Ki, Christopher Daniels, Teddy Hart, Paul London, etc. But CM Punk did nothing for me and even in WWE I feel like he was always "Macho Man" and not (nor should be) "Hulk Hogan".

 

I wouldn't be upset if WWE segregated the Divas division. WWE can have the faux workrate group i.e. The Bellas, Paige, Naomi, Nattie (when she is not being complete shit), and any of the NXT calls up. Smackdown should be filled with the women with zero in-ring talent (Summer Rae, Cameron, Eva Marie, etc.) doing 2002 Smackdown bikini showdowns, dance contests, pillow fights, etc. Why pretend?

 

I still love watching Benoit matches and seek them out often.

 

Kevin Nash is hands down one of the smartest men in the business.

[goc]

I hate that Bobby Fulton kept calling himself and Jackie "The Fantastics" after Tommy Rogers went off to do his own thing. There is nothing fantastic about Jackie Fulton.

[RocketCrypt]

I often find it difficult to watch a 'best of' compilation for anything and would much rather watch stuff in their entirety. Obviously, with time constraints and availability of footage, this isn't always possible. But when it comes to 'best of' sets, I start to take the greatness for granted and become desensitized watching great match after great match. Watching everything, or at least as much as possible, gives me a greater appreciation of the high points.

[BBscout]

I ALWAYS thought CM Punk was overrated. When people talked about ROH and I first started to get into indie wrestling, I got the hype behind AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Low Ki, Christopher Daniels, Teddy Hart, Paul London, etc. But CM Punk did nothing for me and even in WWE I feel like he was always "Macho Man" and not (nor should be) "Hulk Hogan".

 

Daniels never did shit for me but his dance is cool.

[goc]

I remember in 2002 when WWE was in a down period and the internet was all abuzz about RoH so I bought Unscripted and some other event I don't remember and being pretty underwhelmed but ESPECIALLY by Christopher Daniels. "This dude is supposed to be the best wrestler in the world!?"

[benjaminkicks]

I'm a HUGE Batista fan. Like, irrationally so. He's one of my favorite wrestlers. I dunno what it is about the guy, but I love watching his matches, and I think his character work is pretty enjoyable as well.

 

I generally watch wrestling with a pretty critical eye, but whenever I watch a Batista match match my brain goes "oh shit, Batista is wrecking people. Time to stop thinking and just watch in awe."

[El-P]

• I too, like The Chief above me, can not get into Lucha Libre. At all. I have tried. More than once. I think more than anything, it's all the blown spots, the horns in the crowd & the super slow referees.
• When I think of everything that I dislike about professional wrestling, The Young Bucks are the total embodiment of that. I have no idea why they're popular, especially online with the most cynical of wrestling fans.
• I wish WCW would have "won" the Monday Night Wars.
• Most NXT is kinda boring.
• Trish Stratus & Lita were both terrible.
• I don't think Jim Ross is the "best commentator of all-time." I don't even think he was better than Gorilla, let alone some of the color commentators over the years (Ventura, Heenan, Heyman even)

 

Interesting, I could agree with pretty much everything there (except I don't watch NXT TV, and I think Trish was actually okay for WWF style, but just okay)

 

About the Young Bucks, I have no idea either. So much about them is downright awful : the Hardy Boys circa 96 look, the suck-it DX gimmick in 2015, the gazillion superkicks. Brutal. Either too indie, too meta or a combination of both.

[Death From Above]

Whenever I now hear a discussion about how That Thing That Happened In Memphis Was The Most Important/Greatest Thing Of The All Times I just basically have a narcoleptic reaction at this point.

 

Then again I basically have zero interest in current wrestling at all. The current product is nearly globally unwatchable. I like Japanese wrestling from the late 70's through about 2000 and that's it. And that's fine, I guess. I'm that grumpy person with nothing nice to say to people that like current WWE and hate matches over 15 minutes, so I stay out of the way and let people have their fun. The IWC has mostly passed me by.

 

Truthfully I fell off being a wrestling fan pretty hard after Misawa died and at this point it's clear to me that it is never coming back. It's all nostalgia and backstage intrigue for me at this point.

[Matt D]

I get Titan and Triton confused.

[El-P]

Whenever I now hear a discussion about how That Thing That Happened In Memphis Was The Most Important/Greatest Thing Of The All Times I just basically have a narcoleptic reaction at this point.

 

*chuckle* I feel your pain. (and I really like Mempis wrestling. I mean, I actually would take Memphis wrestling over Mid-South or WCCW. But maybe that's simply because of Lance Russel.

 

Truthfully I fell off being a wrestling fan pretty hard after Misawa died and at this point it's clear to me that it is never coming back. It's all nostalgia and backstage intrigue for me at this point.

 

I felt that way for years and years. And then, it slowly came back, although not nearly like it was before, but I aged also, which plays a part. Some stuff in the WWE (Daniel Bryan, Rusev & Lana, Brock), Lucha Underground, the current NJ craze, I finally was able to watch and enjoy some current stuff again.

[El-P]

I get Titan and Triton confused.

 

You a Rick Bogner fan ?

[alexoblivion]

I like the original Blackjacks and I don't find David Von Erich to be overrated. At times, I find the WWE brand to be the equivalent of what Ed Hardy is to fashion.

[DR Ackermann]

Jumbo Tsuruta is one of the most underwhelming wrestlers in history for me. While I think he's done some great stuff, his matches are usually way too long and boring for me to enjoy.

 

I also don't understand how Bret Hart got over to the level that he did. His lack of charisma and emotion is extremely distracting.

[funkdoc]

to try not to sidetrack this thread TOO much, i think what did it for bret was coming off so authentic and down-to-earth in such an inauthentic cartoon world. the whole "fighting champion" push they did with his first title reign impressed the hell out of me as a kid, too - i was too new of a fan to realize the guys he was beating were all losers!

 

anyway, my confession: i unequivocally love battle royals no matter how bad they are. they're wrestling pizza for me. i think i just get excited over all the possible combinations of wrestlers, and you're bound to see them deliver on at least a couple unique/rare ones.

[Sidebottom]

I like to listen to Jesse Ventura talk about conspiracies.

[goc]

anyway, my confession: i unequivocally love battle royals no matter how bad they are. they're wrestling pizza for me. i think i just get excited over all the possible combinations of wrestlers, and you're bound to see them deliver on at least a couple unique/rare ones.

Ditto for me. I love battle royals. I don't get the whole "Battle royals suck" meme. No I haven't ever seen one that was 5 STAR MATCH~! but I have seen a lot of fun ones.

[Blehschmidt]

I'll third the love for Battle Royals. Picked up a 5 disc comp of WWE battle royals a year or so ago and loved every second of it!!

[Hawkeye12]

I love battle royals also. I DON'T love when the guy gets "forgotten" outside and comes back in when it's over to win it when the other guy thinks he won. And WWE uses that one every other time they have a battle royal and now Royal Rumble (Santino and Rusev, but both at least lost).

[ohtani's jacket]

I like to listen to Jesse Ventura talk about conspiracies.

I could listen to Ventura talk about just about anything.

[goc]

Re-read this whole thread and I'm glad I'm not alone in the "I don't like watching Japanese wrestling/I just don't get it" camp.

 

I really like The Boogeyman. No he's not "good" but he's FUN and the feud he had with Finlay was awesome because it also gave us Hornswoggle vs. Lil Boogeyman.

 

I like the Divas title design more than the old Women's Title and just roll my eyes every time I see someone bitching about the "Butterfly belt"

[Bierschwale]

I don't particularly love the Divas belt, but I do think that it was really funny that people speculated that Sasha Banks didn't bring the NXT belt with her because of how much better-looking it is than the Divas'. Nope, it's ridiculous, too. All of the NXT title designs are dreadful, especially the main belt.