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Worst time for wrestling 80s or now


humanracer

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Yeah the 80's were much better. For the reasons mentioned, the roster was so stacked with talent, even the crap matches were good. Largely due to Vince hoovering all the best talent from everywhere in the country.Vince could buy guys who filled arenas and worked in front of thousands, legit stars in other areas compared to today and his midcard is usually greenhorns who came up through the ranks of FCW which is like a garage filled with about 100 people.

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Wrestling politics were not under the spotlight in the 80s. Hell kayfabe was still strong and many thought wrestling was real. Easy to look back and compare then and now. Regional teritorys were doing great trade and when vince took over sports entertainment went global and people lapped it up. You can look back and criticise but at the time with nothing to compare it to people loved it. As for the late 80s sure it had its cheese but still had great things.

 

Oh and no internet meant no smarks. Much easier to suspend your disbelief.

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I'm strange in that I tend to think the overall product has actually improved over the years. I think the production is fantastic these days, and I absolutely love what they're doing.

 

I'm a lot more critical from a booking standpoint, but obviously I wasn't going to be picking that apart as a 5 year old.

 

But sometimes I have a hard time watching older shows because I think they look shit, a lot of it is slow paced etc, and I fail to see what I enjoyed at the time.

 

Don't get me wrong, a lot of stuff stands up over time, but I think I'm a very 'now' kinda guy when it comes to the product.

 

I also agree with this. So many matches don't stand the test of time. I mean i got Flair and Macho Man's 3 disk sets and i find myself fast forwarding through some matches. Wrestling has evolved like everything else in life. Hogan's Brawl with Mcmahon at wrestlemania in 2003 was just as entertaining for me as any of his contests in the 80's. However the 80's has a very interesting mid card, and a really good tag division which puts them on an even field to me. If todays midcard and tag division could make me care like i did then, well they would be head and shoulders above

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Entirely agree with the OP. Because, as we all know, Attitude Era > anything in the history of the world ever.

 

Not just anything in wrestling, ANYTHING. Eat that, civilisation.

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The 80's were obviously the greatest era ever in wrestling history.

 

Many of us wouldn't be watching any wrestling if that was not the case. The 80's paved the way for the 90's and all that.

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I'm strange in that I tend to think the overall product has actually improved over the years. I think the production is fantastic these days, and I absolutely love what they're doing.

 

I'm a lot more critical from a booking standpoint, but obviously I wasn't going to be picking that apart as a 5 year old.

 

But sometimes I have a hard time watching older shows because I think they look shit, a lot of it is slow paced etc, and I fail to see what I enjoyed at the time.

 

Don't get me wrong, a lot of stuff stands up over time, but I think I'm a very 'now' kinda guy when it comes to the product.

Bang on. A lot of people will prefer the 80s or early 90s because that's when they were a kid and they had a stronger connection to the shows than they do now as jaded semi-fans who've spent ten years reading about how shit everything is on the Internet. I'm much the same, but I find a lot of the old stuff fairly unwatchable. I don't think wrestling in general really holds up to rewatching, for the most part. With exceptions, obviously, but I end up skipping a lot if I ever watch old episodes of Prime Time or Raw or whatever.

 

The roster back then was better, or made to look so by the format, at least. The way the shows worked back then, everyone on the roster meant a lot more because everyone beat jobbers all the time. Pay-per-views seemed more special. But the shows weren't as star-studded as they are now. Skinner vs Barry Horowitz would never work as a main event when you're on prime time telly on Monday nights. Having Hogan & Warrior vs DiBiase & Perfect every week on Superstars would have resulted in multiple kidgasms, but over time would've made the characters and pay-per-views less special.

 

It's just a different ballgame. It has evolved. The old ways and shows wouldn't stand up if watched today. The TV shows now are better, more goes on (ideally), but not as much sticks out. Looking back to my youth, I remember hardly any squash matches, but I remember everyone's finisher, and I remember the big angles vividly.

 

John Cena is the most (over)exposed wrestler ever. Up until the attitude era, the big names didn't wrestle anywhere near every week on telly so they were a lot more protected. Things changed with Austin and Rock, but their runs at the top were nowhere near as long. Cena's had probably the most pressure of any wrestler ever. For six years, he's been the biggest name in the only wrestling company that matters, and he's wrestled on telly near enough every week of that apart from injuries. He might not do as many days a month as some of the 80s names, but he's sustaining his TV character in a stronger spotlight more than any of them had to.

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Put it this way....

 

Is there anything happening now anywhere in world wrestling that comes even remotely close to the following series of matches?

 

* Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant.

* Johnny Saint vs. Steve Grey.

* The Midnight Express vs. The Rock & Roll Express.

* The Hart Foundation vs. The British Bulldogs.

* Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair.

* Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask.

* Arn Anderson & Tull Blanchard vs. The Rockers.

 

Sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, nothing today could ever come close to topping those.

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Is there anything happening now anywhere in world wrestling that comes even remotely close to the following series of matches?

 

* Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant.

 

I preferred Punk Cena storyline wise, match quality wise and emotion wise.

 

* Johnny Saint vs. Steve Grey.

 

I'll leave this to other people but Daniel Bryan works an accessible style that with the right opponent could produce a modern classic to match anything I've seen from you tube Saint matches. Yes he's got a great style but I think the evolved style of european/mma crossed is great and let's face it Saint was hardly a household name.

 

* The Midnight Express vs. The Rock & Roll Express. The Hart Foundation vs. The British Bulldogs.

 

Nope - as others have said the tag teams are fucked in WWE.

 

Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair.

 

Watching them again I genuinely don't think these are as good as the last two Michaels Undertaker matches.

 

* Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask.

 

These matches were great for their time but as WWE vintage regularly proves there are many matches in Dragon Gate and RoH in recent years that are as hard hitting and graceful.

 

Generally looking back at WWF in the 80s and a lot of NWA I see some great matches some great angles but a whole lot of dullness and unathletic performances. It ain't perfect, it's sometimes formulaic but WWE over the course of the year produces more classic matches and interesting angles than WWF in the 80s.

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Topping them in what respect?

 

Lots of different respects. Basically, topping them for me, in terms of how much I enjoy them personally.

 

Some in terms of their sheer match quality. Some in terms of emotion, such as Hogan / Andre. Now that wrestling has been exposed as much as it has, I don't believe the same level of emotional involvement in a match / storyline / angle / whatever else can be reached today as back then.

 

As I said, all totally subjective and personal to me.

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Generally I probably prefer it these days to what i've saw from the 80s. But as a single year, 1989 would be hard to beat.

 

As much as the purists tell you the 80s was some kind of golden era, I can't really be arsed with most stuff pre-1988. Slow, low impact and obviously fake looking work, Lack of variety in styles, shit presentation for TV, lack of exaggerated characters, athleticism, spectacular moments, moves, PPVs etc. On the plus side, it was a great era for good brawls.

 

I think if you were a yank weekly show-goer, I could maybe see the appeal, but a lot of the early WWF, NWA and territories doesn't come across so great for TV fans imo. I just wish that everyone around today was as grounded in the basics as most of the 80s guys were, rather than relying on their athleticism, spots etc to mask their deficiencies. Maybe that's why I enjoyed the first half of the 90s so much. Wrestling style etc. had evoloved a bit by then, but it was still being performed by guys who learnt their trade in the 80s.

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Put it this way....

 

Is there anything happening now anywhere in world wrestling that comes even remotely close to the following series of matches?

 

* Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant.

* Johnny Saint vs. Steve Grey.

* The Midnight Express vs. The Rock & Roll Express.

* The Hart Foundation vs. The British Bulldogs.

* Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair.

* Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask.

* Arn Anderson & Tull Blanchard vs. The Rockers.

 

Sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, nothing today could ever come close to topping those.

 

My two-cents on those versus today:

 

Hogan vs Andre... no, nothing comes close. If it did, they'd sell out huge arenas still and they don't.

 

Saint vs Grey... nobody around today has the talent to match Saint (or a few other all-time greats either)

 

Midnight Express vs Rock and Roll Express... I can't stand them.

 

Harts vs Bulldogs... as much as I love them I think their series 'could' be matched... but as WWE don't do tag team wrestling then... no

 

Steamboat vs Flair... over-fucking-rated x 1,000,000.

 

Dynamite Kid vs Tiger mask... as as series, they aint really ever been rivalled for me. A few trully wonderful contests and a load of great ones too. Some may have the talent to match them and wrestling has evolved but would they garner the same interest/heat/ticket sales? Unlikely

 

Brainbusters vs Rockers... dunno, Brainbusters vs Harts I loved... but WWE don't do tag team wrestling.

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