garynysmon

Always loved a reluctant tag partner, ala Dude Love and Stone Cold in 1997. But essentially anything that's not two people standing toe to toe, while they both slowly look away to a Wrestlemania sign.

I'd go with this tbh, but not necessarily because wrestling is more 'woke'. Most of the top storylines in the Attitude Era would be acceptable (albeit watered down) in 2020, age old stories like the rebellious employee overcoming the overbearing boss etc are evergreen. Its just the shite like bra and panties matches, Lawler shouting puppies and the tawdry Russo-esque filler that wouldn't. And in reality that's no bad thing as even then it seemed quite childish and pushing the boundaries of taste for a company that likes to think of itself as a Disney-eque entity. The wrestling industry itself has changed, but its done so because it always follows the industry leader (the WWE). The WWE has made a decision to concentrate on longer matches, more emphasis on workrate etc which is not really my cup of tea at all. But it was a conscious decision to cater to the hardcore audience that have, and always will be there, and are wrestling obsessed enough to spend a large chunk of their disposable income on wrestling as opposed to a tendency to dip in and out of the product when it appeals. You can rightly question if this means that attracting casual fans will be so much harder in future, but there you go. We can all moan about over-produced TV, scripted promos and good matches but involving wrestlers no-one gives a fuck about. But in reality, that can't be pinned on shifts in what's acceptable in 2020 and what's not. What made wrestling popular during its early and late 90's heydays would still be achievable now if they wanted to.

That's the thing, it all depends on what you class as a good PPV really doesn't it? I've always thought that Wrestlemanias 5 to 8 were a good little run of shows, but that's at least partially clouded by childhood nostalgia I suppose. I could happily go back and watch any 80's or early 90's show and the big names would be more than enough to get me through them. WM 2000 was an appalling show but I've always thought that WM19 was tremendously underrated, but on the flipside I've never bothered going back to watch WM18 apart from Hogan v Rock.

Nothing cheers me up more than to see wrestlers I watched in my teens actually still on TV. Let him wrestle forever and turn another hundred times.

The thing is, AEW are sometimes acting like they're Chikara when in reality they should be behaving like a true national/international promotion should. Fair enough, if it was a niche product that the audience had to go to a massive effort to seek them out, then it would be fine to tuck away crucial content on Youtube. But (and I consider myself in this category) when they're on a massive network that surely depends on casual as well as hardcore fans, then why not make it as easy as possible for your audience? The TV rights will dwarf any other income stream they have. Just because a big chunk of the audience are quite smarky and into their workrate, doesn't mean that you shouldn't be looking to grow your audience as much as possible and become a bit broader. Yet it sometimes comes across that some sections of the wrestling fanbase don't want it to become too popular again. During the height of the Attitude Era, you could watch Raw without necessarily having to bother with Superstars/Metal etc but were there as auxiliary programming. Nothing of major significance happened on these shows but they were there. I'm happy to watch AEW for free on ITV4 every week but have never watched an episode of Being the Elite, and kind of resent the idea of being almost forced to in order to understand some of what's going on. I suspect that I represent a fair chunk of the TV audience there. While everyone has access to the internet these days, not everyone is as sad as us and spend time on message boards talking about it and watching old and current Youtube videos. Its fine to refer to its online content on the TV show, but if anything of great entertainment/storyline importance happens, then at least show some of it on the main TV show!

If the WWE are copying AEW then they truly are the masters of flattery, because I'd say that their slot on Channel 5 is ten times better than late night ITV4. Cue dads across the country stumbling across Raw on Channel 5 and asking their kids, "Are the Bushwhackers still on then?"

What a horrendous sausage fest that must be.

Would prefer WCW Worldwide repeats tbh. Can't see this boding well for Impact who are on 5Spike's graveyard slot every Friday night.

I Sky+ it personally, so never encountered such issues.

I'm shocked Andy Hamilton got one, I wasn't too impressed with his showing at the BDO champs tbh. Waites will be a loss to the BDO, another 'core guy' gone but will anyone miss Wesley Harms?!

I actually get a kick out of that. That said, the opening match this week and the ridiculous "everyone standing around for ages to perform the multi man suplex" spot was another "modern wrestling really isn't for me" reminder.

I remember being shocked when reading one of the Apter mags as a kid in the mid 90's to find out that Bret Hart was 37 years old at the time. He was always portrayed and wrestled as a young up and comer to some degree, or certainly to someone of my age who was too young for the initial Hart Foundation run. 37 seemed ancient to me at the time and whereas it shouldn't come as a surprise now, I still can't get my head around the fact he's now in his early 60's. Its funny, I can watch an episode of Premier League years from 96/97 or whatever, and fully appreciate the footage of Ravanelli for 'Boro or Gordon Strachan still plodding along in centre mid for Coventry as being of its time. But on the flipside, watch an episode of Raw from 1997 during the US/Canada feud or whatever, and it feels nothing like the best part of 25 years ago.

Could be an unpopular opinion, but I can't get over what a shit gimmick/name "Best Friends" is for a tag team featured on national TV. Always think it looks ludicrous on a tag team tournament bracket or something like that. That is, like too much of the AEW product, its meant to be an indy "in joke" that I'm unaware of the background to.

Agree with the above really. One of the unforseen consequences of no competition was probably a lack of much needed roster recycling. (Which is quite ironic as I spent most of the 90's wishing it was still 1992 - my wrestling utopia -and desperately wanting to see Hogan, Warrior, Savage, Bulldog etc back in the WWF and the band back together.) Thinking back to the 80's and 90's, most stars seemed to have a run in both major companies and prior to that several different teritorries. Compare that to the likes of Randy Orton who seems to have been meandering around the upper mid card for 10-12 years, to an outsider, doing not a lot. I'm a massive nostalgia nonce but some of my fondest ever runs seemed to last no time at all in comparison. Diesel's late 95/96 heel run lasted for 6 months if that, Flair was in the WWF for less than 18 months, Jake's heel for 6 months. Its no wonder how individual years throughout the 90's looked so different to the one prior. Constantly changing rosters (i.e top stars leaving and a necessity to replace them) but also the overall presentation. Compare an 1980 episode of All Star Wrestling to Superstars in 1990, comparing that to Raw in 2000. Light years apart. I'm not convinced that an episode of Raw in 2010 and 2020 look and feel all that different tbh.

I haven't watched this week's show yet so my earlier point may be a bit outdated. But some of those tag matches since Dynamite's debut have been appalling, meaningless spot fests, so I sincerely hope that is the case.