Random Thoughts III.

[Supremo]

I watched, “The Wrestling Road Diaries,” for the first time ever this week. The most note worthy thing is how clear it is that Daniel Bryan always had that ridiculously likeable personality. He comes across on this exactly like he always comes across, as the nicest man on the planet, impossible not to root for. Even back then you could see that he was something truly special.

It was also cool to see guys like Gargano and Cesaro considering what they went on to become. The saddest part was seeing what great shape Chris Hero was in. It’s unbelievable the way he let himself go. I’ll never get over it.

Are the second and third instalments worth watching?

Edited June 18, 2018 by Supremo

[King Pitcos]

33 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I watched, “The Wrestling Road Diaries,” for the first time ever this week. The most note worthy thing is how clear it is that Daniel Bryan always had that ridiculously likeable personality. He comes across on this exactly like he always comes across, as the nicest man on the planet, impossible not to root for. Even back then you could see that he was something truly special.

It was also cool to see guys like Gargano and Cesaro considering what they went on to become. The saddest part was seeing what great shape Chris Hero was in. It’s unbelievable the way he let himself go. I’ll never get over it.

Are the second and third instalments worth watching?

The second definitely is. Cliff Compton and Luke Gallows are great fun.

[BomberPat]

14 hours ago, Supremo said:

It was also cool to see guys like Gargano and Cesaro considering what they went on to become.

On a similar note, I've had no internet access in my flat, so been watching old DVDs. Watched the CHIKARA/WXW crossover weekend from 2008 last night, mostly because it had a Mike Quackenbush/Johnny Saint main event that I hadn't watched in years, hardly expecting it to be the sort of show where you see a lot of future big names, considering the location and promotions involved.

But the weekend features Cesaro, WALTER, Aleister Black, Drew Gulak, Neville, and Danny Burch, as well as Johnny Kidd, Robbie Brookside, a young Sha Samuels and Joel Redman, with mentions on commentary of Kota Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr having initially been booked but pulling out due to injury. Bonus content on the DVD is a couple of episodes of their old podcast, which features clips of Lince Dorado, Luke Harper and Ricochet.

Seeing pretty much all of that bunch as rough-around-the-edges indie lads - some of them I had no recollection of being on these shows in the first place - is kind of cool.

[The Dart]

Reminds me of an Evolve show I went to a few years ago, which was basically a who's who of NXT/205 Live now.

Tony Nese, Aleister Black, Cedric Alexander, Kassius Ohno, Drew Gulak, Drew McIntyre, EC3 and TJP all on it.

There's probably loads of indy shows from 2-5 years ago loaded with future WWE stars.

[Supremo]

I can’t imagine anyone rooting against these guys. They seem so fucking nice. I wish them all the success in the world and can’t wait to watch All In.

[Kfogg1991]

I have only recently started watching fight club pro, I've seen bits and bats and enjoyed it but it's been either really expensive to keep buying events or they don't come up online ext but I've tried to support them as much as I can.but I have been obsessed with progress for a couple of years now, there wrestlers and storylines genuinely got me back into wrestling and the whole excitement bit of it. 

That being said I watched chapter 71 this week and I don't know it any of you will agree with me but I found myself quite upset and fustrated at what there doing with certain talent but more importantly they don't have any really gritty ingrosing storylines now.

 

What they did to Jimmy havoc against spike was if im honest pretty shit and killed his character. He was unstoppable at one point and brought that company to where it is now in terms of the amount of eyes he got on the product. 

 

Does anyone agree or even disagree with it. It would actually be really interesting to know peoples thoughts 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Supremo said:

I can’t imagine anyone rooting against these guys. They seem so fucking nice. I wish them all the success in the world and can’t wait to watch All In.

Cody especially In that video. The are so driven to do well, treat fans like they are the only person there to see them, just really positive about all aspects of wrestling and doing good for everyone and not just them. Whatever it takes to see all in I’ll pay and watch it in full support of their venture 

[Statto]

I don’t know why it’s taken this long to dawn on me, but of WWE’s 5 General Managers, Kurt Angle is the only one who isn’t British.

[simonworden]

Overheard some of the boys in my class talking today about John Cena. Started with them just trying to do the announcers drawn out Jahhhhhhnnnnn Ceeeennaaaa thing and then one lad chimed in "Is John Cena dead" followed by someones reply of "I think so, I haven't seen him for a long time".

 

Made me realize that the time off some guys have to kids is an absolute age and got thinking about how in 2001 The Rock's disappearance to film The Scorpion King felt like forever but April to August now shoots by. It's easy to forget if you don't have kids these little differences in how we watch wrestling.

I also thought about all the times I hear my students talk about WWE (which is less than a couple of years ago), they never ever mention Roman Reigns. It's still mostly Cena and ocassionaly I hear Rollins and Owens brought up alongside the classics most notably Taker, Show and Kane. 

[Your Fight Site]

1 hour ago, simonworden said:

Overheard some of the boys in my class talking today about John Cena. Started with them just trying to do the announcers drawn out Jahhhhhhnnnnn Ceeeennaaaa thing and then one lad chimed in "Is John Cena dead" followed by someones reply of "I think so, I haven't seen him for a long time".

Glad to see wrestling talk in schools haven’t changed. We used to have the same conversations. “Sting’s not been on WorldWide for ages because he’s dead.”

[WyattSheepMask]

It’s great what constitutes “ages” when you’re a kid. When was Cena last on? Was it Wrestlemania?

I think it was an interview with Cornette who said that wrestling tends to have 7 year cycles, and I saw somewhere mention recently about how we’ve just passed 7 years since the CM Punk ‘shoot’ promo on RAW (I’m not calling the other thing because I hate the term). Go back back 7 years from that point and you had Benoit on top, 7 years before that you had people standing to form some sort of ‘Attitude’ and a 10 Man Tag match at an In Your House that surely wouldn’t stand the test of time, and 7 years before that you had Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude in a Steel Cage. To put it in a Wrestlemania context, Hogan winning the Gulf War at Wrestlemania 7 to Austin winning his first title at Wrestlemania 14 felt like an absolute lifetime passed between them. All stages of the business completely different from one another. Yet the 7 year stretch from Punk in 2011 to now in terms of the main roster show, has it really changed that much? Sure you’ve got a whole bunch of new guys there, but in terms of how they and the show itself are presented? Not so much. It like Punk winning the belt stopped Moore’s Law dead in its tracks

Edited July 2, 2018 by WyattSheepMask

[BomberPat]

42 minutes ago, Your Fight Site said:

Glad to see wrestling talk in schools haven’t changed. We used to have the same conversations. “Sting’s not been on WorldWide for ages because he’s dead.”

Poisoned by his facepaint, obvs.

Absolutely agree on the seven year thing. Cornette's "seven year cycle" reasoning is usually used as when it's okay to recycle angles and stories; after seven years, you can assume there's been enough of a turnover of old fans leaving and new fans starting watching, and that of the old fans remaining, some will have forgotten what happened last time around, and some will be in it for the long-haul by then and not care that you're giving them a rehash of an old story. 

But it definitely seems to hold true for the idea of "Eras" (always a forced WWE-centric concept), and it's astonishing how little WWE changes these days. Aside from their production and presentation being stagnant (which actively puts me off watching WWE these days, I just find their production so stale and undynamic that I don't get invested in the matches), nothing happens. I'm not saying we need a late stage WCW approach of title changes every show, swerves and turns aplenty, but there's just nothing giving the product a sense of urgency. More than half the roster are in exactly the same spot now that they were two, three, four, five, maybe even ten years ago in some cases - they've not turned from heel to face, not been pushed further up the card, not changed their gimmick, not won a title, not been involved in a storyline, they've done nothing.

I didn't watch any main roster WWE shows between the Greatest Royal Rumble and Money In The Bank. Watching MITB, it didn't feel like I'd missed anything important. As a kid, missing a pay-per-view, let alone all the weekly TV along with it for two months or more, would have been a disaster. If I'd tuned in to a PPV having seen nothing for two or three months, it would be like the whole landscape of the promotion had changed.

By comparison, I did a bit of a 2001 watch-through recently (I think I may have made this point before);

• Wrestlemania 2001, Edge & Christian win the tag titles, Austin turns heel and beats The Rock for the WWF Title, Chris Jericho beats William Regal for the Intercontinental Title
• Backlash 2001, Austin and Triple H beat Undertaker and Kane for the Tag Titles, WWF Title and Intercontinental Title. So, in less than a month between those shows, Triple H sides with Austin, the Tag Titles change hands, and the IC Title changes hands. And that's just people involved in one match on the card.
• Judgment Day 2001, Benoit & Jericho become the number one contenders to the Tag Team Titles, Kane wins the Intercontinental Title.
• Then, by King of the Ring, the Dudley Boyz are the Tag champs. So, between the two PPVs, we saw Benoit & Jericho get their title match, win the belts, then lose the belts.
• Next PPV is Invasion, and it all goes mental, because we've got an influx of WCW and ECW talent and new belts. 
• By Summerslam, Lance Storm is IC Champion - a belt we last saw on Kane, who somewhere in the interim lost it to Albert, who then lost it to Storm. Kurt Angle is a babyface now, Shane McMahon is a heel, The Rock's back, Undertaker & Kane are WCW Tag Champs, and so on. Everything has changed.

 

It doesn't need to be that constant and rapid-fire, but watching the PPVs without the TV, it did feel like I was missing out on a lot. Now, I haven't watched WWE weekly TV in years, only watch the PPVs, and now I'm at the stage where even missing a PPV doesn't feel like I've missed anything. Nothing ever changes, nothing happens, and there's no sense of urgency.

[HarmonicGenerator]

50 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

 

But it definitely seems to hold true for the idea of "Eras" (always a forced WWE-centric concept), and it's astonishing how little WWE changes these days. Aside from their production and presentation being stagnant (which actively puts me off watching WWE these days, I just find their production so stale and undynamic that I don't get invested in the matches), nothing happens. I'm not saying we need a late stage WCW approach of title changes every show, swerves and turns aplenty, but there's just nothing giving the product a sense of urgency. More than half the roster are in exactly the same spot now that they were two, three, four, five, maybe even ten years ago in some cases - they've not turned from heel to face, not been pushed further up the card, not changed their gimmick, not won a title, not been involved in a storyline, they've done nothing.

 

Case in point, Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler was also Intercontinental Champion in July 2010. Eight years ago. 

[Pinc]

Ziggler is the poster boy for stasis.

[The Dart]

Don't know what thread to post this in.