Random Thoughts III.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Someone clearly hates kneepads at Jakks Pacific.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Even in action figure form, Batista's the snappiest dresser there.

[Weezenal]

31 minutes ago, Bellenda Carlisle said:

I'm at a car boot sale

Genocide.

[PowerButchi]

I've never got the figure thing, to be honest, I used to like them as a child having matches but that was it, For those who still get them over the age of 10 what is the attraction? As it;s one of the wrestling fan things I don't get

[Kaz Hayashi]

I don’t think there’s anyway to really describe why people collect as such, it’s an urge and a buzz. In some cases linked to being completist, or nostalgia.

It falls firmly in to the realm of stamp collecting and things of similar ilk. It’s a hobbyist thing. People who collect military stuff, old people who collect plates they’ll never eat off, tea pots they’ll never drink from, coins they’ll never spend and in this case figures they’ll never play will.

There’s also a community element to it and as with any hobby, a development of knowledge of a particular product can be a buzz.

The prices people are will to spend can be incredible. I’ve just sold 2 mailaway hasbros (the ones you get from cutting out Frosties tokens) and sent them to the other side of the world. I’ll be buying a new front door for the house with the funds.

[King Pitcos]

For me it was collecting as a hobby and nostalgia, I think toys were what started the collecting bug in me as a little kid (He-Man, Ghostbusters, Turtles, wrestling), then moved on to football stickers, DVDs and whatever over the years. Occasionally I'd dip my toe back into wrestling merch for nostalgia purposes, just buying loads of old t-shirts and magazines on eBay like that yellow Razor Ramon one that WWE are selling again now. That included figures sometimes, and with the figures, I always wanted to do a federation with them like I did when I was a kid. But whenever I'd try, it wasn't much fun at all because I wasn't eight. Still, I went headstrong into collecting them once the Mattel ones started coming out and kept it up for about seven years, it became a thing of having to keep up with it to justify all the keeping up with it I'd already done. What's the point in having a million wrestling figures but none more recent than Braun Strowman having mad Wyatt Family hair? It just got mental to keep trying with. I've been out of it for about a year and a half, and I don't really miss it apart from the odd case like seeing the Pete Dunne one. I'm mostly just collecting new life regrets and embarrassing moments now.

[Kaz Hayashi]

1 hour ago, King Pitcos said:

I'm mostly just collecting new life regrets and embarrassing moments now.

Spending money on wrestling figures provides exactly the same outcome in fairness.

 

[The Gaffer]

Has there ever been a wrestler who was elevated to such a consistently high position as Edge was from 2006-2011 who has been forgotten by history so fast? We're not talking about a guy who was a flash in the pan, or a failed experiment, or someone who succumbed to a PR disaster and was swiftly brushed under the rug. Edge was dripping in titles during his peak years. One of the major internal successes of the first brand split. WWE crafted to a tee, but a total and utter success story as a singles wrestler after being synonymous with one of the most popular parts of the most popular period the wrestling world will ever know. 

Yeah, he's a class act of a bloke and we can still see him on the device of our choice doing skits with Tommy Dreamer, but what a legacy that never really happened! I know some on the UKFF never fully bought his top dog status, but this guy had an era defining TLC match with Cena in his hometown and main evented a WrestleMania with Undertaker. Not in that Swagger bracket of hotshot title winners. Was it a lack of memorable singles matches? The fact that his sudden exit was succeeded by the Summer of Punk and the subsequent influx of "shit, they're showing ROH footage now!" consistently higher quality of matches that he was never really a part of? The TLC with Cena seemed era defining at the time, yeah, but has the term "the Ruthless Agression era" ever actually been mentioned on a WWE production? 

I remember his retirement speech sidelining me like a segment of Raw never had. Now it seems like he's just one of those faces of the past. The current generation also don't seem to attribute anything to him. Could that be it? Jeff is still the obvious breakout star of the TLC era. Edge done the spear off the ladder, had a live sex celebration with Lita, and got just shy of a dozen top tier titles that you can remember at best two or three of. He might go down as the most decorated non-influence in wresting history. 

Are my jumping the gun or is this thread worthy? We done one in May 2011 comparing him with Bret Hart!

Edited January 20, 2019 by Gay as FOOK

[LaGoosh]

I think it boils down to Edge being really, really good but never truly great. I struggle to think of many big singles matches he had outside of the Undertaker Mania match and the Cena run that really left a big impression or lasting memory. He obviously had a very successful career and played a part in some historic angles but he never quite reached the true upper level. He was within grasping distance but just a little bit off. There were definitely periods of his main event run which were incredibly dull, especially if he was a babyface.

[Your Fight Site]

Think another factor is, his main event career was cut short. To history, he was just a main event player in part of one particular era.

Had he had a career of someone like Cena with like, 10 years at the top, spanning different eras, then it may have been a bigger hole left by Edge’s retirement.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Edge is one of my all-time favourites - the only time I wasn’t keen was his face run on Raw when he came back from injury on 04 and got the dreaded post-Mania-Kane-feud - but it’s an interesting argument. What was his lasting impact, or legacy? 

You could make a case for him being a big part of why Money In The Bank and cash-ins have become such an institution.  While it’s true that the last two cash-ins have been busts (Corbin lost, Strowman’s went to a no contest somehow), they still rely on it so strongly because Edge got so over with it the first time.

He might have been inconsequential in the grand scheme of things (or not), but whenever he turns up in something I’m watching on the Network I remember how good he was and how much I enjoy his stuff. 

[PowerButchi]

Bang average. Chris Jericho without the self promotion. If someone asked you to name a wrestler, you wouldn't name Edge until at least after 25-30. At least. Possibly, or probably, more. The first thing that comes to my mind when he's mentioned is the weird leggings on his skinny legs. No reall memorable matches or promos.

 

EDIT: I take that back, Lita's tit fell out because of him.

Edited January 21, 2019 by PowerButchi

[cobra_gordo]

Woke up super early so been watching Summerslam '88 this morning. Was pottering around making breakfast in the build up to the opener between Rougeaus and British Bulldogs and when Howard Finkel says "Scheduled for one fall" and leaves a pause, I'm automatically waiting for the "ONE FALL!" response from the crowd. Has anybody spliced in modern audio over older wrestling? Wonder if it would take away from matches or is distracting? Sometimes it works (UK Takeover's crowd were doing songs and chants but it worked for that show) but a lot of the time it just looks like the crowd aren't invested whereas on older shows, even up to the end of the Attitude era, the fans are engaged and reacting organically. Would love to know how something like Randy and Elizabeth reuniting would have come across on TV with a crowd chanting "You deserve it".

[HarmonicGenerator]

That would be interesting to see/hear. When was it that chants became the predominant method of interaction for the crowd? 

[Onyx2]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

That would be interesting to see/hear. When was it that chants became the predominant method of interaction for the crowd? 

It's evolved like a lot of things, there's no one crossover. Obviously chants have been a thing for a long, long time, but something happened in the late 90s: "H B K" was a thing, but Bret never had one; "Un-der-taker" existed but I can't think of one for Stone Cold until "WHAT". And there's "E-C-DUB". (No one has ever chanted "DUB DUB EE"). 

The Rock and Road Dogg seemed to be pioneers of call and response with many catchphrases. But ECW kept ploughing away, and this sentiment was picked up the indies, particularly ROH. 

I'm not well-watched enough to say where it started but in WWE early 2010s seemed to birth the current wave of chanting. All the "you deserve it", "this is awesome" etc appeared at Raws after WrestleMania. Then there was that UK Raw / SmackDown tour where the crowd went ballistic and legitimised audience takeover (what year was this?). These were the shows where JBL kept going on about how the crowd do what they want and enjoy themselves, which is code for 'please come along and do this' . 

"ONE FALL" felt like it came from the UK scene before WWE took it on, which I note announcers were likely told to talk over initially but now seem to just let happen.