A wrestling playlist for newbies

[garynysmon]

On 9/9/2017 at 9:59 AM, Kaz Hayashi said:

I agree, you have more chance of getting lapsed fans back in to it though apparently.

I'm not convinced that lapsed fans would necessarily be into wrestling nowadays though, especially what the WWE do. Essentially its like night and day isn't it? What's being produced now is so far removed from the two boom periods, essentially placing the emphasis on athleticism rather than the characters.

[Kaz Hayashi]

2 hours ago, garynysmon said:

I'm not convinced that lapsed fans would necessarily be into wrestling nowadays though, especially what the WWE do. Essentially its like night and day isn't it? What's being produced now is so far removed from the two boom periods, essentially placing the emphasis on athleticism rather than the characters.

Well no, not all of them, but I know a couple who have got back in to it, and as my post goes on to say, an old pal of mine also wants to start watching.

[BomberPat]

It really depends on what "sort" of fan they were in the first place, when they stopped watching, and what they got from it.

I know a girl who stopped watching after CM Punk left, who started again because the Hardy Boys showed up at Wrestlemania - I showed her some NXT stuff, and she absolutely loved it, and a guy who used to watch in the late '90s/early '00s who started watching again recently because he loved the Fashion Police skits when I showed him them. But I'm not sure that would work as well for someone who hadn't watched since the early '90s and was expecting voodoo witchdoctors and so on.

Someone once said to me that wrestling is about creating moments - there's always a moment or two that made you a fan, and the rest of your fandom is spent trying to recapture that feeling; when we try and get new fans into wrestling, it's in the hope that they will experience that same thing, and if we end up working in wrestling, it's in the hope that we can recreate it. Whether that's Austin stunning McMahon, Hogan bodyslamming Andre, the Rock/Hogan staredown, whatever. If you watch the trailer for the WWE Network, that they play during every PPV, you might notice that it only actually features two wrestling moves - the rest is moments; staredowns, entrances, big angles. Because that's what people remember. But I think when we end up as bigger fans, we forget that, and we try and get people invested in what we like about wrestling now, rather than what got us hooked in the first place. Something that's been a bit of a learning curve for me since I started working shows primarily to an audience of kids is that young kids don't really know or care about what constitutes a good wrestler, or a good wrestling match - they just like the guys who win all the time, because they're obviously the best.

 

When I started going out with my last ex, she wasn't into wrestling at all - had seen bits of it during the Attitude Era and really didn't enjoy it. I chatted to her about it a bit when we started dating, and basically got her round to the idea that there would be bits of wrestling she liked, she just needed to come at it from the right angle. I told her about CHIKARA, and she was way more into the idea of that - effectively presenting wrestling as a live action comic book or cartoon, rather than taking it all deadly seriously; and I think it's that idea of wrestling as something that presents itself as real, and fans who defensively insist that it is real that turns a lot of people off - if you can break down that barrier, people are way more receptive. From there, we watched a couple of old Royal Rumbles - I defy anyone to not enjoy a good Royal Rumble! - and she was way more into that than if I'd started her on a standard singles match; it's easy enough to understand the rules immediately, you get a great parade of different characters and personalities, and the story and style of the match shifts a few times to never feel boring. To this day, one of her favourite wrestling moments is the '92 Rumble, when Heenan's talking about how Flair needs a breather, and to be able to calm down and take it easy a bit, and then Piper's music hits and he comes out arms flailing and probably coked up to his eyeballs.

So, yeah, I'm rambling, but it's just about figuring out what works for different people - I'm meeting more and more people now who are prepared to give wrestling a chance because of GLOW, or curious because they've been to a live show and want to find out more; there's a girl training with us at the moment, who has worked as a ring announcer for us, has made every training session she could, and puts in a ton of effort, who had never watched a WWE show in her life before this year's Summerslam. It's about identifying what angle they came at wrestling from, and what they want from it, or what you think they'll get from it. But a Royal Rumble's always a good shout!

[FourtyTwo]

What about AJ Styles v Christopher Daniels v Samoa Joe - Unbreakable 2005, or Styles & Daniels v LAX from 2006 (I think the cage match from Bound for Glory was the best of the lot, from memory).

 

I'd also put in the Rock v Hogan WM match, just for the sheer scale of it, and the way in which the crowd buys into it.

[AshC]

Doomsday Cage from Uncensored 96. Pots and pans!

[Guest]

More reaction from our newbie:

Sting, Luger & Savage vs Hall, Nash & ??? (Bash at the Beach '96)

The third man!!!
Hulk Hogan brother!

Haha
The great thing is that it's never the end of a story, it's always the beginning of something new

Clip of Hogan and the nWo, including Dennis Rodman, exiting a limo and walking to the ring

:O I was such a huge Chicago Bulls fan in the 90s! But seeing Rodman smoking a cigar with "Hollywood" Hogan is just beyond awesome The nWo really made the WCW popular right?

Clips of Sting's transformation

I'm just about to watch the Sting vs Hogan match, but wow this (new) Sting Crow character is fascinating! There must have been hard to chose between the 2 corporations back then with such creativity on both sides :o

Hogan vs Sting (Starrcade '97)

My goodness!!! The alliance Bret Hart/Sting for the title! That was so great!

Clip of Sting being lowered from a helicopter at Club la Vela on Nitro (Spring Breakout) to attack the nWo

I've also watched the helicopter entrance of Sting... just fantastic. I LOVE "Sting" the character! He reminds me so much of Brandon Lee in "The Crow".

It's also really interesting to watch the change of character from Sting. Prior to the Crow, he looked sunny and happy and the dramatic change of his personality was probably just incredible to witness.

Something happened at the end of the Helicopter video. Something very sad

I saw the title of a video in the side bar called "Why Sting changed his entrance after Owen Hart death".

I searched for that and quickly read about what happened. That's unbelievable

Hogan vs Goldberg (Nitro, July 1998)

I just watched Goldberg's victory over Hollywood Hogan! What's Goldberg's theme song? It's awesome! The crowd went literally crazy that night! What an atmosphere I always forget to mention this, but I'll never see those foldable seats the same way anymore What's the deal with them. There's always a seat somewhere to smash against the opponent's back How did Hollywood Hogan do in the WCW? I guess he was well paid to be the villain the new stars of WCW would eventually beat so to become legends themselves? Last thing, did I hear right... Goldberg had a streak of 108-0 victories after Hogan's match?

I had the feeling during the match that Goldberg was genuinely smiling to the crowd, as if he was strongly feeling the moment and enjoying it. That was nice

Eddy Guerrero vs Rey Misterio Jr (Halloween Havoc '97)

You can throw in some "cruiser weight" matches anytime you like because the one I just saw was incredible

Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka (Heat Wave '98)

Watched Awesome vs Tanaka match. I can feel the rise of pain level they must endure! The match was actually really good and Awesome does things I could not imagine someone this big and heavy could do! (But it's something I feel almost every time while watching with amazement those athletes! It's just that I always forget to say it). Are Tanaka's scars due to Wrestling? The production looks not as polished as the other corporations you have focused on for me, but I can see why there is an audience for this corporation too! Now I'm wondering where stands my personal limit. For now it's fine

Jerry Lynn vs RVD (Living Dangerously '99)

Wow! The Jerry Lynn vs Rob Van Dam match was something! Probably the most spectacular match I saw until now! The "living dangerously" ring had some serious rebound
Loved it! Those wrestlers must be super popular, aren't they? They are really, really good!!! Thank you for having picked up this match :)))

Jerry Lynn vs RVD (Hardcore Heaven '99)

If I had a dying wish right now it would be to see Bill Alfonso swallow his whistle during the match

It's really something to see those two fight! I kind of wished that Lynn would win this one, they really both deserve to be champion! What does impress me the most is the agility they have. It's unbelievable! The last jumps (sorry, I don't know the names of the moves yet) of Van Dam were just incredible! How high and far is he able to jump!?! By the way, the mat seems to be particularly elastic. Is that something they can set up so there is more rebound or is it usually like this in every ECW match? Last thing, WWE did buy the rights from this corporation too according to the video logo? Does that mean this kind of extreme wrestling doesn't exists anymore or has it been integrated in the WWE? Anyway, that's my favourite style so far I have to say!

Mankind vs Undertaker (King of the Ring '98 Hell in a Cell)

Isn't it ironic for a match labelled "Hell In The Cell" that they start fighting on top of the cell? ^^ This must be Heaven for doomed Wrestlers!

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??? Did the Undertaker just throw Mankind down the cage???

It must be 6 meters high at the very least!

How can a human being have the guts to do that!?!

Poor Mankind. He was in Hell!

I didn't expect this would go so far!

This was totally insane :o

The tacks ok. Poor Mankind.

What really is beyond me are the "falls". Especially the first one.

Do you think the risks were calculated with such accuracy that it was guaranteed that Mankind wouldn't break his spine/head/legs?

How did Mankind have the strengh to go on...

Don't you think that was too much to take for a human being?

As far as I'm concerned, this was too much of a risk for the wrestlers. I didn't forget what you told me about Wrestling at the very beginning of the journey - who decides what wrestlers really are while active, and what they become when "thrown away"... it's just the first time I'm confronted with this reality.

But Mankind was ok with that of course. There was a match plan, the falls were in the script as were the tacks. He probably knew the high probability of being injured and still carried on. MANKIND... YOU CRAZY HERO!!!

Rock vs Hogan (WrestleMania X8)

Wrestling is awesome really... you should see my 5 minutes smile at the end of the video, from the moment the Rock and Hollywood team up 'til the end. Like a little kid, really  It baffles me that every time that I think I won't be genuinely surprised by the events, I'm proved wrong! 

(He'll now be flying up from Italy to join us for Progress Wrestling's Wembley Arena show next September. )

[Statto]

2 hours ago, Uncle Zeb said:

Hogan and the nWo, including Dennis Rodman, exiting a limo and walking to the ring

:O I was such a huge Chicago Bulls fan in the 90s! But seeing Rodman smoking a cigar with "Hollywood" Hogan is just beyond awesome The nWo really made the WCW popular right?

 

I love this entrance so much. Everything about it is amazing.

Gutted they've dubbed over Voodoo Chile with the standard nWo theme on the Network.

[Jazzy G]

Every time Voodoo Chile comes on I lose my shit. I'm not a big Hulk Hogan fan, but I loves me some Hollywood Hogan.