Random Thoughts III.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Jerry St Lawler.

[UK Kat Von D]

3 hours ago, garynysmon said:

I remember seeing that poster as a kid when I was living in Aston. Wasn’t even really watching wrestling at the time but I knew the faked looked shit 

[wordsfromlee]

I saw that poster up in empty shop windows in my town only a couple of years ago!

[King Pitcos]

I’d have grassed them right up to Gorilla Monsoon, like he asked me to in the WWF magazine.

[Cannibal Man]

Boston Blackie of Reslo and other Euro stuff as The Rock. Fairly certain I saw him outside Rhyl town hall the day of a show outside of his car talking to a few people in full Rock casual gear with the shorts, button up and sunglasses. Mentioned this a million times on here, but it must be the same show he later got on the mic and called someone soft lad.

[Your Fight Site]

Saw that show at the Dolphin Centre in Darlington in 99-ish.

[PowerButchi]

The Boston Blackie or was the spit of Brian Conley when he had the short hair as the rock

[Jazzy G]

They used to advertise that all over Blackburn as well. I would have loved to have gathered a couple of my smarky mates at the time and gone along to rip the piss. 

[Pogue]

Just watched the full episode of Prime Time when Perfect turns face, apologies if it's been discussed on here a million times before but the little look he gives Heenan when Heenan jokes about having a six man so Savage can have two managers teaming with him is perfect (for lack of a better word) 

Also, 1/ that was done without a TV-MA rating or whatever they had in the Attitude / Ruthless Aggression era

2/ You could easily do something like that on the shows with no crowd, provided they have a big enough table I suppose 

[DCW]

Been watching 2001 on the network and some of the pops RVD was getting were ridiculous, up there with what Austin, babyface Angle & Rock were getting at the time. Pity, they never sustained his initial push, he should have been the one proper success story of the Invasion. By February 2002 he was firmly back in the mid card box, fucking around with Goldust and Regal.

[Undefeated Steak]

Watched the Rise and Fall of ECW for the first time in years. I always thought Terry Funk looked ancient in it, but in that 3-way dance in 1994 he'd have been a couple of years younger than Triple H is now, and only 4 years old than Cena is.

[Statto]

It really annoys me how Baron Corbin's current lower half attire is neither really proper wrestling tights nor a pair of regular trousers. They're some weird hybrid, with a belt for some reason.

[Pinc]

On 5/8/2020 at 3:28 PM, DCW said:

Been watching 2001 on the network and some of the pops RVD was getting were ridiculous, up there with what Austin, babyface Angle & Rock were getting at the time. Pity, they never sustained his initial push, he should have been the one proper success story of the Invasion. By February 2002 he was firmly back in the mid card box, fucking around with Goldust and Regal.

Aye its a hill I’m very glad to die on. Babyface RVD beating heel champ Austin should’ve been the main event of Mania X8. And it should have been framed as the beginning of the Van Dam era like Austin’s victory at Mania 14 was the beginning of his.

That was the natural outcome of the invasion storyline, and would’ve meant doing without the sudden Austin face turn the night after Survivor Series ‘01. Which amounted to a retconning of the previous year of storylines, stretched the casual audience’s suspension of disbelief beyond breaking, and is an underacknowledged reason for why so many casual fans switched off in 2001 and never came back. It was the WWE’s Armin Tamzarian moment.

Someone on here (sorry I forget who) said recently that Mania X8 and the Rock/Hogan match in particular was the watershed moment at which WWE's narrative thread stopped looking forward and it became a nostalgia show, concentrating more on playing the hits from its past than building its future (with the nWo, red and yellow Hogan and babyface Austin all central to the shows in the coming months). The natural next step in the story they’d been telling since the start of the Attitude era was RVD as the new face of the company and when they bottled it with him they wrecked their own continuity and they’ve never managed to fix it.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Pinc

[CavemanLynn]

2 hours ago, Pinc said:

Someone on here (sorry I forget who) said recently that Mania X8 and the Rock/Hogan match in particular was the watershed moment at which the narrative thread of WWE stopped looking forward and became a nostalgia show, concentrating more on playing the hits from its past than building its future... 

That sounds pretty accurate, and probably generated the vicious circle we have now. It hammered home the kayfabe idea that once you were a legend, you were ALWAYS great in the ring. You never lost a step, and none of the new stars ever had a counter to moves that you've been doing for 20-30-40 years. It's always affected wrestling to some extent, but it definitely has come to the fore. The skit where Stone Cold dished out Stunners to the Street Profits pissed me off, because it made Ford and Dawkins look like dizzy marks - you're in the ring with Stone Cold, the guy who spent his career espousing DTA, and you STILL don't prep to avoid getting Stunnered?

Someone mentioned earlier how they'd be annoyed getting a ticket to watch the Rock or Undertaker and them not doing the Tombstone and the People's Elbow. By all means, work a schmozz once the cameras are off so the oldies get to play their hits, but don't broadcast it all over TV. When I saw Smackdown at the O2 yonks ago, the TV show ended with the Shield smashing Taker through the announce table, but the arena show ended with Triple H and the New Age Outlaws in baggy DX gear hobbling out, hitting their sigs on the Shield and feeding Ambrose up for a Tombstone. Send the fans home happy, but don't bury your current crop for that sake.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

14 minutes ago, CavemanLynn said:

you're in the ring with Stone Cold, the guy who spent his career espousing DTA, and you STILL don't prep to avoid getting Stunnered?

I really like the way Matt Hardy dodged the first RKO when he was doing a promo with Randy on RAW recently, he still got battered but it was nice to see a bit of awareness from his character that can be pretty lacking like you said.

At about 2:30 in this vid.