Let's talk rings.

[The Gaffer]

I thought this might be a bit of a fresh take on the usual titantron and entrance music discussion. 

The ring is - after all - where our eyes are trained most of the time when watching. And down through the years there's been a generous amount of variation to them. 

WCW probably walk it for variety, but I'll single out Halloween Havoc 1990 for its maroon canvas and spooky orange ring ropes:

Cool as fuck. 

I also thought when WWE first started using black ring ropes it meant serious big time. Most of the big four from 2000 through the first half of the decade used them but the effect for the first few was quite special:

 

 

What about worst? They're all over the indies and always have been, but ECW had some right filthy looking set ups, particularly before their move to PPV and cable:

You'd need shots before and after crossing that threshold!

 

Over to you, UKFF. Any fond setups? Who done it best? Go nuts and bring in the barriers and announce tables if you want. Is there mileage in this topic? 

[Guest]

WWE's pink middle rope during October always added that extra bit of menace to Hell in a Cell. A fearsome reminder that this is what your intestines look like, when ripped out of you by the unforgiving steel mesh. Proper chills every Halloween.

[PowerButchi]

I always really liked the yellow blue and black roped WCW ring of the early to late 90s.

[Magnum Milano]

I saw the thread title and genuinely thought this was going to be all about Kiyoshi Tamura, Volk Han and obscure Soviet fighters with unpronounceable names. 

[kickin it wit the kliq]

The black and gold ring ropes from Wrestlemania IX and X

[Chris B]

One of the things that made 1997 feel like such a big deal was the switch from the red, white and blue ropes to the all-red ones, with the black turnbuckles instead of the blue. It had been the same look forever, so it was the biggest visual sign that they were doing things differently. Along with the new, darker feel and the black and red designs, it just felt less wholesome and more dangerous than it had previously. 

[Tommy!]

I always loved the wcw yellow Scope on the blue canvas, matching Tb pads and black ropes. I thought it looked smart while still being full of colour. 

Edited October 28, 2020 by Tommy!

[TomJones233]

[Your Fight Site]

18 minutes ago, Magnum Milano said:

I saw the thread title and genuinely thought this was going to be all about Kiyoshi Tamura, Volk Han and obscure Soviet fighters with unpronounceable names. 

I thought it was going to be four-sided vs. six-sided.

I was always a fan of WCW’s branded canvases. I know WCW do the ring skirts, but I used to like seeing the show’s name printed on the canvas too. Stopped matches (and shows) looking homogenised.

On the flip-side, I do like the black and yellow colour scheme the NXT ring has, but then again I am biased as that was the aesthetic I wanted when I played promoter at 18 but gave up after one abysmal show.

[cobra_gordo]

These are my two favourites because they both sum up perfectly my two favourite eras. The big square cage is definitely a factor too.

The big blue one, with the red white and blue ropes and blue bars on the cage, the almost regal blue, orange and gold of the Summerslam text and a brightly lit crowd all in vivid colours. This is peak Hasbro era for me.

Same cage but the black bars against the red ropes is so striking. I really like the simplicity of just the WWF logo too. There's just something really gritty about it. It really reminds me a lot of the colour schemes local bands were using on their Geocities sites. 

[The Gaffer]

The big bulbous bit at the corners is for guys to get a better footing for top rope moves, surely? 

I do like the thwack from WCW rings. Smaller rings suit the luchadore style more, too. WWE's famously became a lot more bouncy some time after Mankind nearly killed himself at Hell in a Cell. You can see and hear that easily looking before and after that show. The boards during the New Gen era sounded rough. 

[Carbomb]

I always loved the blue-bar cages; it's a shame they were just too dangerous to keep using.

Generally speaking, I tend to prefer when they have one- or two-colour rings - looks sleek, less busy. When they debuted the SmackDown black and blue one, I thought it looked very swish.

Also, as this is general talk about rings, let's indeed talk about six-siders, and about how they've very rarely ever been used properly. They really should only be a specialised gimmick - TNA using it as their main ring was silly. Should've kept it as something for the X-Division, to give it more to stand out other than "they do big spots and are really fast" - give it a kayfabe reason to exist, as most sporting subdivisions tend to have different rules, different setups. Using it only for Destination X and/or X-Division-only programming would've helped with that.

Best example I can think of of how to use it well was the Toryumon 2000 Project. Yes, DragonGate/Toryumon's thing was that their wrestlers did do big spots and were very fast, but they always emphasised how it was because those wrestlers were trained in lucha libre, lucharesu, and/or llave. Add to that the background of T2P, which was part of Toryumon's system of having named "generations" (there was also Toryumon X and Toryumon Gym, I think) with their own programming, and the ring became an excellent part of building a theme that these young lads were the latest, state-of-the-art wrestlers being produced by the promotion. It basically implied "these guys are so hi-tech and paradigm-shifting that they need a ring advanced enough to meet their abilities". Obviously, it's carny bollocks, but it's good carny bollocks, and a six-sided, sleek black ring looked exactly like something Milano Collection AT or Masato Yoshino, with their mind-bending submissions and speed attacks, would use.

But once they were on main Toryumon/DG programme, it was like "OK, fly-boy - you've graduated, now you have to show us if you can do the same thing where the big boys fight".

Edited October 28, 2020 by Carbomb

[Your Fight Site]

3 minutes ago, Gay as FOOK said:

The big bulbous bit at the corners is for guys to get a better footing for top rope moves, surely?

No. The “bulbous” bit is where the two ends of the ropes are clasped together. More than one corner would have a “bulbous” bit if it was to aid with footing.

[BomberPat]

3 minutes ago, Gay as FOOK said:

The big bulbous bit at the corners is for guys to get a better footing for top rope moves, surely? 

I do like the thwack from WCW rings. Smaller rings suit the luchadore style more, too. WWE's famously became a lot more bouncy some time after Mankind nearly killed himself at Hell in a Cell. You can see and hear that easily looking before and after that show. The boards during the New Gen era sounded rough. 

Yeah, it's not long after that show that they started using a sprung ring - before that, the WWF ring was famously one of the stiffest in the country. Beggars belief the bumps they expected people to take on the old ring, at the schedule they were working back then.

The sprung ring had its own set of problems, as people who had grown used to working the old style of ring had adapted to moving in the right way around it, and with the additional bounce and give in the new set-up, were ended up with shot knees and fucked necks from moving and bumping in the same way but getting more push back from the sprung floor. 

The ring I've worked most in is a "pony ring", so barely a foot off the floor, to fit in a room with a very low ceiling. It's a similar sensation, going from working that, to working a ring that's otherwise the exact same set-up but full height, and learning how much give the bigger ring has - it gives you a completely different gait, more of a spring in your step. Similarly, our ring is extremely padded - the only example I've seen of a softer mat than ours is in Sweden, where they basically worked on judo mats under canvas - and while some people would get in and their eyes would just light up at how soft and safe it was, some of the older wrestlers we worked with were worried about rolling their ankle because they were used to being on far more solid ground. So there's pluses and minuses to it all!

[The Gaffer]

2 minutes ago, Your Fight Site said:

No. The “bulbous” bit is where the two ends of the ropes are clasped together. More than one corner would have a “bulbous” bit if it was to aid with footing.

This is like finding out X-Pac's theme goes "Make some noise!" and not "X-PAC!" all over again.