Random Thoughts III.

[Bus Surfer]

On the subject of Hogan, I had no idea he's had some tattoo's done. Proper weird visual seeing that. Doesn't look right at all.

[David]

13 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

He looked like my auntie, 6 months after her divorce when she’d replaced her husband with biscuits.

Christ, wouldn't want to spill your auntie's pint if she looks like this...

Say what you want about the guy, but he's right, he does look better than much of the current roster, and he's 65 years old. Hopefully during his return he's not only been imparting some nuggets of information to the current lot on how to actually work a crowd and get a reaction, but maybe provided a few with some advice on hitting the iron now and then.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I missed the double bicep, to be fair, but I think his wobbly bingo wing may well have knocked out my TV aerial before we ever got to that bit.

He's definitely a big boy at the minute, but he's carrying a little extra.

I do agree though, that the current roster tend to look shit. Ambrose looked a thousand times better after he came back a little bigger, and he's got nothing on the hosses of the past. 'Skinny', relatively speaking, is the new normal.

I've said it a gang of times on here before, but the worst thing that's happened to wrestling is this obsession with legit athleticism and being 'real' athletes. Fuck that. You're in entertainment. Your gig is no different to The Rock's Hollywood gig, or even Micky Rourke in The Wrestler. Get back to the old Bodybuilding basics, eat steaks and inject anything you can.

Drugs will be the root cause of the next boom period. I guarantee it.

 

 

 

 

 

...I take no responsibility for any exploding hearts or murder-suicides.

[tiger_rick]

That is a cracking picture of the Hulkster to be fair to him and I give him all the credit in the world for working as hard as he does to look like Hulk Hogan at his age but to suggest he looks better than the rest is bollocks. He looks great because his T-Shirt is hiding his tits, his bandana is hiding his bald head, the glasses are hiding his crows feet, the picture is hiding that hair he's cut off a Barbie and stuck on and his bingo wings. For an 80 year old bloke, he looks fantastic but leave out the other bollocks.

[David]

13 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

I missed the double bicep, to be fair, but I think his wobbly bingo wing may well have knocked out my TV aerial before we ever got to that bit.

He's definitely a big boy at the minute, but he's carrying a little extra.

I do agree though, that the current roster tend to look shit. Ambrose looked a thousand times better after he came back a little bigger, and he's got nothing on the hosses of the past. 'Skinny', relatively speaking, is the new normal.

I've said it a gang of times on here before, but the worst thing that's happened to wrestling is this obsession with legit athleticism and being 'real' athletes. Fuck that. You're in entertainment. Your gig is no different to The Rock's Hollywood gig, or even Micky Rourke in The Wrestler. Get back to the old Bodybuilding basics, eat steaks and inject anything you can.

Drugs will be the root cause of the next boom period. I guarantee it.

 

 

 

 

 

...I take no responsibility for any exploding hearts or murder-suicides.

Exactly. And for the record, even old-school moaning types like me aren't talking about wanting a return to the days of seeing guys like the Warlord and the Bulldog battle it out for full-nelson supremacy.

All I want from wrestlers when I watch them is for them to look like they are legit dudes, the types of guys who look like they could clear me and six of my mates out of a bar without breaking a sweat. They obviously don't have to be legit Rick Rude tough guys, but at least play the fucking part.

I tuned into that UK NXT show when it started, purely out of curiosity, but by fuck it looks as though they've hired a bunch of trainees from the local college and handed them some kick pads. And those two guys called Moustache Mountain or whatever? Jesus Christ, they look like my 15 year old nephew during movember. Moustache Mountain? Unless you can cultivate a Tom Selleck looking article then don't even fucking bother.

[David]

1 minute ago, tiger_rick said:

That is a cracking picture of the Hulkster to be fair to him and I give him all the credit in the world for working as hard as he does to look like Hulk Hogan at his age but to suggest he looks better than the rest is bollocks. He looks great because his T-Shirt is hiding his tits, his bandana is hiding his bald head, the glasses are hiding his crows feet, the picture is hiding that hair he's cut off a Barbie and stuck on and his bingo wings. For an 80 year old bloke, he looks fantastic but leave out the other bollocks.

Apologies for the double post, but it's not about how impressive he looks, it's about the fact that he looks like a proper strong geezer. Even without the tan, hair, moustache or whatever, if you seen him walking down your local town centre in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt you're thinking "Jesus Christ, that's a fucking lump of a lad right there," aren't you?

How many of the guys coming through today can you say that about? This isn't the UFC, this is supposed to be professional wrestling, with over the top, larger than life characters and personas.

[tiger_rick]

This is 16 years ago. Look how he ages 20 years before your very eyes.

 

[Keith Houchen]

Geezer in the bottom photo still looks like he'd kick the shit out of the likes of Finn Balor, brother.

[tiger_rick]

2 minutes ago, David said:

How many of the guys coming through today can you say that about?

Lesnar, Cena, Reigns, Strowman, Rusev, Joe, Sheamus, AOP, Rhyno, that big lad in the Ascension, Harper and Rowan, Titus O'Neil, Lars Sullivan.

[tiger_rick]

6 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Geezer in the bottom photo still looks like he'd kick the shit out of the likes of Finn Balor, brother.

So do Lesnar, Cena, Reigns, Strowman, Rusev, Joe, Sheamus, AOP, Rhyno, that big lad in the Ascension, Harper and Rowan, Titus O'Neil, Lars Sullivan. What's your point?

[David]

Rick, the guy is sixty fucking five years old mate. What do you expect him to look like? My point is that even at his current age, and coupled with the fact that he's not even involved in the business at the moment he still looks like a strong bugger. If you see someone like him, even at that age, walking around town you know he's not just some regular Joe, don't you?

I mean no offence to any of these lads personally, but look at this....

Fucking moustache mountain? This looks like a group of four Glasgow lads with the "taps aff" in the afternoon sun as they stroll down Argyle Street!

I don't watch much of the current stuff, but if this is what qualifies as wrestlers now, who look as though they're going through a choreographed dance routine rather than actually trying to look as though they're hurting each other then no wonder the product is going down the shitter.

 

[David]

4 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Lesnar, Cena, Reigns, Strowman, Rusev, Joe, Sheamus, AOP, Rhyno, that big lad in the Ascension, Harper and Rowan, Titus O'Neil, Lars Sullivan.

Again with the double post, I know, but how many of them are coming through? Lesnar and Cena are in their 40's or close to it now, Strowman is mid 30's, and Rhyno? Are you talking about the guy from ECW with the little arms? Is he still around?!?

I'm talking about the talent coming through. There's a handful, I'll give you that, but never in the history of the sport has it been easier to get involved in the industry without actually looking like a fucking wrestler.

[BomberPat]

I don't think wrestling today needs to be about big muscular types, though. That approach worked in the '80s/early '90s because that's what the milieu of pop culture was about at the time.

When Hogan was on top, Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and He-Man one of the most popular cartoons. Pop culture in general was infatuated with bodybuilder types in a way it simply isn't any more, not by a long shot. Today's action movie stars are more likely to be relatively lithe, toned types, performing a mixture of cod-MMA and parkour, not 300lb muscleheads gorilla pressing goons. There's still a place for "larger than life" - Marvel movies' success prove that - but it doesn't have to be as literal as the WWF being the land of giants.

We can all say "it's not MMA, it's pro-wrestling", but the fact is, MMA has educated the audience to know that it's not necessarily the big muscular fuckers that are handiest in a fight. Arguably the most well known fighter in the world is Conor McGregor, who's three inches shorter and forty pounds lighter than Finn Balor.

Edited November 6, 2018 by BomberPat

[d-d-d-dAz]

Just now, BomberPat said:

I don't think wrestling today needs to be about big muscular types, though. That approach worked in the '80s/early '90s because that's what the milieu of pop culture was about at the time.

When Hogan was on top, Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and He-Man one of the most popular cartoons. Pop culture in general was infatuated with bodybuilder types in a way it simply isn't any more, not by a long shot. Today's action movie stars are more likely to be relatively lithe, toned types, performing a mixture of cod-MMA and parkour, not 300lb muscleheads gorilla pressing goons.

We can all say "it's not MMA, it's pro-wrestling", but the fact is, MMA has educated the audience to know that it's not necessarily the big muscular fuckers that are handiest in a fight. Arguably the most well known fighter in the world is Conor McGregor, who's three inches shorter and forty pounds lighter than Finn Balor.

The biggest movie star in the world is The Rock, who's as juiced up as anyone who has ever lived.

[Keith Houchen]

13 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

So do Lesnar, Cena, Reigns, Strowman, Rusev, Joe, Sheamus, AOP, Rhyno, that big lad in the Ascension, Harper and Rowan, Titus O'Neil, Lars Sullivan. What's your point?

That they all look like hard bastards?