Random Thoughts III.

[tiger_rick]

15 minutes ago, David said:

Rick, the guy is sixty fucking five years old mate. What do you expect him to look like?

Can you read, mate? I just gave him credit for looking great for a man of his age. I'm questioning that he looks like he can beat up the rest of the roster. Because he doesn't. Because it's wrestling. And the minute he steps in the ring and takes off the top and the bandana and the shades, he looks like what he is. A barely mobile, 65 year old man with a nice tan and big arms.

[tiger_rick]

6 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

That they all look like hard bastards?

Agreed. What does that mean then? Is watching the big lad from the Ascension interesting? Is he making any money? He looks like he can beat up Balor and Rollins and Ziggler, etc. He damn sure looks like he can beat up Hulk Hogan. What we doing with that then?

[Carbomb]

15 minutes ago, David said:

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.

 

I don't watch WWE at all now, but that's a completely different thing you're stating there. How they look and how realistically they work matches are not necessarily directly related, although there may be influences on each other. AJ Styles looks athletic, but not particularly hard, but I don't think there are many would impugn his credentials as a worker. Same with HBK really, when you think about it.

As to the product going down the shitter, going from what people on here have said, seems the looks of their workers are fairly low down on the list, and the way WWE books its talent and programming is a much more immediate concern.

[tiger_rick]

I do love that phoney-looking wrestling action has been brought up in an argument eulogising Hulk Hogan. That's a belter.

[David]

6 minutes ago, 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. 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.

Again, not everyone needs to be a jacked-up type though, like I said, but they at least need to look the part, no? Jake Roberts wasn't a huge musclehead by any stretch, but by Christ you wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley, would you? He looked like an evil, nasty piece of work.

Even the most recent "top guy" in Cena is jacked up, isn't he? He looks like the part. Dude resembles his action figures and when you see him in person you think "christ, that's a lump of a lad right there. I'm glad he's a good guy cos if he wasn't he could easily clear me and my six mates out of this West Newbury watering hole without breaking a sweat."

It's about the look. If no one knew who McGregor was and he swanned into a bar you'd take one look at his cauliflower ears, broken nose and shit tattoos and think "right, he's a pikey by the looks of it, with the gob to match. Probably another fifteen where he came from, and they could probably clear me and my six mates out of this Irish pub without breaking a sweat."

The worst thing WWE can do is try to take anything from the UFC as far as how guys look. 

[FLips]

All I know is that if someone like Kevin Owens or Adam Cole started me in a pub I'd fancy my chances, but if they looked like Hogan did now in his 60s I'd buy him a pint and go home.

[Keith Houchen]

4 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Is he making any money?

Couldn't give a shit.  As David sort of said, I prefer wrestlers who look like they could kick fuck out of me and my mates.  It's about the perception, innit.  Look at Game Of Thrones, would anyone buy into The Mountain and The Hound being hard as fuck if they were played by Harry Potter?

I reckon I'd take the smaller ones in WWE in a fight, I wouldn't and I'd get my arse handed to me in quick time, but sizing them up, I reckon I'd have them and when I was sitting in A&E having my wounds seen to I'd still say it was a lucky punch.

[tiger_rick]

11 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Couldn't give a shit.  As David sort of said, I prefer wrestlers who look like they could kick fuck out of me and my mates.  It's about the perception, innit.  Look at Game Of Thrones, would anyone buy into The Mountain and The Hound being hard as fuck if they were played by Harry Potter?

I reckon I'd take the smaller ones in WWE in a fight, I wouldn't and I'd get my arse handed to me in quick time, but sizing them up, I reckon I'd have them and when I was sitting in A&E having my wounds seen to I'd still say it was a lucky punch.

I'm still trying to decipher the point if I'm honest. I don't disagree with you on the look. One of the things I liked about Rusev immediately is that he doesn't look like everyone else. He's thickset like an Arn Anderson and looks solid. I'm still the only person on here who likes Bray Wyatt and that's down to the way he looks and the way he talks. But it's meaningless in the grand scheme. As I've pointed out, there are loads of lads who look like they could handle anyone. Some of them are the biggest stars they have and some of them are jabronis. The lads who would have been "Vanilla midgets" 20 years ago are World Champions now.

[Keith Houchen]

I think the collective point is tell the story right and it becomes believable.

[Joe Blog]

I also like Bray. Fuck da haters Rick. Me and you Wyatt Crew!

[Wrasslin]

I’m on board the Bray train too!

[Porkchopcash]

#metoo for Bray Wyatt

[David]

34 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

I'm still trying to decipher the point if I'm honest. I don't disagree with you on the look. One of the things I liked about Rusev immediately is that he doesn't look like everyone else. He's thickset like an Arn Anderson and looks solid. I'm still the only person on here who likes Bray Wyatt and that's down to the way he looks and the way he talks. But it's meaningless in the grand scheme. As I've pointed out, there are loads of lads who look like they could handle anyone. Some of them are the biggest stars they have and some of them are jabronis. The lads who would have been "Vanilla midgets" 20 years ago are World Champions now.

The point originally was that I disagreed with someone saying that Hogan looked rubbish. I think he looks great for his age, and said that he could probably impart some advice to todays talent about how to look like a proper star. I'd say he was qualified to do so.

It then moved on to discussion about wrestlers in general, and how they look shit. And you're right, the lads who would have been vanilla midgets 20 years ago are Champions now, but that's not to say that said vanilla midgets are any good, but maybe that the industry lacks the top proper heavyweight stars it had back then. 

Let's be honest, AJ Styles at 5'11 and under 220lbs is a cruiserweight, he's never a heavyweight, much less a heavyweight fucking champion.

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

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.

Another point there Patrick, McGregor is handy in his own weight class. You stick him in there with a bigger dude who's equally skilled and he's getting smashed. Putting smaller WWE guys in with much larger guys who are supposedly as well versed in the art of wrestling simply makes those bigger guys look like complete chumps when they lose.

[Joe Blog]

52 minutes ago, David said:

Another point there Patrick, McGregor is handy in his own weight class. You stick him in there with a bigger dude who's equally skilled and he's getting smashed. Putting smaller WWE guys in with much larger guys who are supposedly as well versed in the art of wrestling simply makes those bigger guys look like complete chumps when they lose.

Well I for one am glad we never had 20 years of Big Show on top. 

[David]

23 minutes ago, Joe Blog said:

Well I for one am glad we never had 20 years of Big Show on top. 

I'm not a fan of Show either, especially in his later lazy years. But beating someone of that size should be a big deal, and something done by the biggest, strongest and fastest. Not by a chump in kickpads who weighs less than a buck ninety.