Good Wrestling Twitter 2024

[NeverYield]

14 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I remember some interview years ago where 'Taker said he would never have become a wrestler if MMA was around when he was younger, because fighting for real would be so much more interesting and appealing to him.

Never wrestled in college, never boxed, never did any martial arts training, but sure, whatever you say, Mark.

Haha yeah I remember that now that you mention it, and I remember thinking at the time legitimate wrestling and boxing or other forms of martial arts were still about for someone to pursue if they wanted it.

Wrestling is literally the oldest sport in the world.

[SuperBacon]

Remember when they used to fap about him being the "best pure striker in the business" and it just looked like a drunk old goth down the pub jerkily slapping someone.

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 minute ago, SuperBacon said:

Remember when they used to fap about him being the "best pure striker in the business" and it just looked like a drunk old goth down the pub jerkily slapping someone.

I remember when they used to say Punk had 'educated feet', yet he kicked like that education must have been in another subject.

Then the daft sod actually bought his own nonsense and went to the UFC.

Wrestlers are idiots. I love Batista to death, but even his MMA sojourn was a bit embarrassing.

[Supremo]

Trump’s gonna fucking LOVE the stories about making female wrestlers cry at a stupid made up court. Whip out the T-shirt collection for bonus brownie points.

Hilarious for him to make it an Us vs. Them with Batista, as if anyone would ever choose them over Batista. Biggest bunch of losers imaginable.

[NeverYield]

Yeah Punk fed his head with rubbish and bought it didn't he, no doubt he had a few round him gee'ing him on aswell. 

Yeah you're right, Batista and MMA were never going to set the world alight but at least he had a pop, CM Punks was a damn sight worse but again I suppose you can say at least he had a pop.

The nerves backstage to get a worked match right must be big at times, but it's a totally different vibe sitting ready to go out and have a fight with someone.

[Chili]

Pillman always thought Taker's rep was a load of Johnny Bollocks too.

From Crazy Like a Fox: The Definitive Chronicle of Brian Pillman 20 Years Later by our very own @Liam O'Rourke

"After six years in the WWF without a guaranteed deal, Undertaker wasn't thrilled to see newcomers like Brian Pillman and Marc Mero walking in the door with a financial safety net. It was made worse by a personal dislike that dated back to their WCW days, when they'd had words after a match at Clash of the Champions and never had any regard for each other personally after that.

Undertaker's demeanor was generally a cool, calm reserve that commanded respect, and eccentric types could rub him the wrong way. Pillman's personality clashed with his, and Brian didn't particularly care for Calaway at all.

With Pillman's credibility as a street fighter and NFL alumnus, he saw a vast contradiction in Undertaker, who Pillman deemed a "fake biker". Brian saw him as a man without any reputation as a credible fighter but still carried himself as if he should be feared, whose athletic background was simply a tall basketball player with Texas Wesleyan University that never made it to the pros. In many ways, Pillman thought Calaway was a phony."

[d-d-d-dAz]

24 minutes ago, NeverYield said:

Yeah you're right, Batista and MMA were never going to set the world alight but at least he had a pop, CM Punks was a damn sight worse but again I suppose you can say at least he had a pop.

This is a bit harsh.

Batista ended up fighting a bin man in a regional promotion and still made it look like hard work; 

CM Punk, the mad nutter, decided to have a swing at jumping straight into the premier league of MMA with basically zero experience. In Mickey Gall, he fought someone actually decent and in Mike Jackson, someone less decent but still a level above what Batista fought.

In essence, both were hugely embarrassing, the period where WWE stars all wanted to be legit fighters was cringe inducing and Dave Batista is still a fucking good egg. Undertaker can piss off.

Edited October 20 by d-d-d-dAz

[davertfnewman]

7 minutes ago, Chili said:

Pillman always thought Taker's rep was a load of Johnny Bollocks too.

From Crazy Like a Fox: The Definitive Chronicle of Brian Pillman 20 Years Later by our very own @Liam O'Rourke

"After six years in the WWF without a guaranteed deal, Undertaker wasn't thrilled to see newcomers like Brian Pillman and Marc Mero walking in the door with a financial safety net. It was made worse by a personal dislike that dated back to their WCW days, when they'd had words after a match at Clash of the Champions and never had any regard for each other personally after that.

Undertaker's demeanor was generally a cool, calm reserve that commanded respect, and eccentric types could rub him the wrong way. Pillman's personality clashed with his, and Brian didn't particularly care for Calaway at all.

With Pillman's credibility as a street fighter and NFL alumnus, he saw a vast contradiction in Undertaker, who Pillman deemed a "fake biker". Brian saw him as a man without any reputation as a credible fighter but still carried himself as if he should be feared, whose athletic background was simply a tall basketball player with Texas Wesleyan University that never made it to the pros. In many ways, Pillman thought Calaway was a phony."

Pillman is one of my favourites of all time and while he had that pretty boy look early on, he was coked up, roided up, and not entirely all there, so if Undertaker took him on at his best he might be missing an ear or nose.

[NeverYield]

I'll admit beyond a couple of clips here and there I had never watched anything properly on Batistas MMA career, and after Daz's post, good grief..

Pillman would have a scrap in a second I reckon, I think he had 'Taker weighed up perfectly.

[The King Of Swing]

I suspect that a good few of the guys back then could probably have handled Taker if push came to shove. 

His close relationship with Vince was probably a bigger shield that any hard man reputation.

[Infinity Land]

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

This is a bit harsh.

Batista ended up fighting a bin man in a regional promotion and still made it look like hard work; 

CM Punk, the mad nutter, decided to have a swing at jumping straight into the premier league of MMA with basically zero experience. In Mickey Gall, he fought someone actually decent and in Mike Jackson, someone less decent but still a level above what Batista fought.

In essence, both were hugely embarrassing, the period where WWE stars all wanted to be legit fighters was cringe inducing and Dave Batista is still a fucking good egg. Undertaker can piss off.

Batista finished up with WWE on his own terms and looking to pursue acting. The MMA training out of personal interest. Early on things were close with Strikeforce, who would have been happy with some name value to offer up for a freakshow fight on TV. That never went anywhere. He then starts booking more acting gigs and this fight came in the middle of that and seemed to be more of a bucket list item to tick off.

Punk quit the WWE with nothing lined up financially. Even if he had interest in going to TNA who were still on Spike or trying to tempt Sinclair to part with major cash for a ROH run that would likely have been caught up in a lawsuit over his non-compete. Turned out there would be a lawsuit later on anyway due to the podcast appearance he did.  Madness doesn't look so mad when it equates to a multi-fight deal worth millions. Money he wasn't getting anywhere else and with the added benefit of close to 2 years prep time.

 

[d-d-d-dAz]

Just now, Infinity Land said:

Batista finished up with WWE on his own terms and looking to pursue acting. The MMA training out of personal interest. Early on things were close with Strikeforce, who would have been happy with some name value to offer up for a freakshow fight on TV. That never went anywhere. He then starts booking more acting gigs and this fight came in the middle of that and seemed to be more of a bucket list item to tick off.

Punk quit the WWE with nothing lined up financially. Even if he had interest in going to TNA who were still on Spike or trying to tempt Sinclair to part with major cash for a ROH run that would likely have been caught up in a lawsuit over his non-compete. Turned out there would be a lawsuit later on anyway due to the podcast appearance he did.  Madness doesn't look so mad when it equates to a multi-fight deal worth millions. Money he wasn't getting anywhere else and with the added benefit of close to 2 years prep time.

 

Lots of lovely context.

Still, embarrassing mid-life nonsense from the both of them.

[wandshogun09]

5 hours ago, Chili said:

Pillman always thought Taker's rep was a load of Johnny Bollocks too.

From Crazy Like a Fox: The Definitive Chronicle of Brian Pillman 20 Years Later by our very own @Liam O'Rourke

"After six years in the WWF without a guaranteed deal, Undertaker wasn't thrilled to see newcomers like Brian Pillman and Marc Mero walking in the door with a financial safety net. It was made worse by a personal dislike that dated back to their WCW days, when they'd had words after a match at Clash of the Champions and never had any regard for each other personally after that.

Undertaker's demeanor was generally a cool, calm reserve that commanded respect, and eccentric types could rub him the wrong way. Pillman's personality clashed with his, and Brian didn't particularly care for Calaway at all.

With Pillman's credibility as a street fighter and NFL alumnus, he saw a vast contradiction in Undertaker, who Pillman deemed a "fake biker". Brian saw him as a man without any reputation as a credible fighter but still carried himself as if he should be feared, whose athletic background was simply a tall basketball player with Texas Wesleyan University that never made it to the pros. In many ways, Pillman thought Calaway was a phony."

Ha, love this. Pillman had his fake hard man act sussed. The guys in the locker room who were supposed to be the genuine hard cases like him, Rude and even his old partner Spivey could probably tell he wasn’t the real deal from a mile off.

Tracy Smothers couldn’t stand him either. Talked about him in pretty much any shoot interview he did and he didn’t slag a lot of people off from what I remember. Didn’t have much good to say about Taker or Shawn Michaels though. I remember one story he told from when they were in WCW and he said Taker tried to jokingly grab him and fight with him in the locker room one night and Tracy took him down and tied him up and wouldn’t let him up or something. He said he thought it was all in good fun  but he didn’t think Taker appreciated being embarrassed in front of ‘the boys’.

Then of course, the more well known story. Fast forward to 1996 when Tracy’s in the WWF as Freddie Joe Floyd and they’re in the dressing room and Taker’s incessantly moaning about Cloudy the male valet for the Body Donnas, the big tatted up bloke who was dressed as Sunny. Taker’s banging on about it and going “fuck, some guys’ll do anything to get in this business”. And Tracy fires back with “Yeah, how long you been dead now?” Classic. Apparently Dead Mark, the mark, didn’t take it well. 

[IANdrewDiceClay]

5 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

This is a bit harsh.

Batista ended up fighting a bin man in a regional promotion and still made it look like hard work; 

CM Punk, the mad nutter, decided to have a swing at jumping straight into the premier league of MMA with basically zero experience. In Mickey Gall, he fought someone actually decent and in Mike Jackson, someone less decent but still a level above what Batista fought.

In essence, both were hugely embarrassing, the period where WWE stars all wanted to be legit fighters was cringe inducing and Dave Batista is still a fucking good egg. Undertaker can piss off.

That's a bit harsh of Big Dave. Bautista was about 43 (his official age anyway) and his body was torn to shreds from years in the ring and bodybuilding. He was only doing it for a bucket list thing. I wouldnt say it was embarrassing, as he had no goals what so ever in the sport. Otherwise Bellator would have paid him shit loads at that time to fight. Punk got shit on badly by everyone, but that was mostly because people felt he was taking money out of the till due to his celebrity. Big Dave showed up, did his thing, and the best you can say about it was that we all forgot about it the next day.

[d-d-d-dAz]

20 minutes ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

That's a bit harsh of Big Dave. Bautista was about 43 (his official age anyway) and his body was torn to shreds from years in the ring and bodybuilding. He was only doing it for a bucket list thing. I wouldnt say it was embarrassing, as he had no goals what so ever in the sport. Otherwise Bellator would have paid him shit loads at that time to fight. Punk got shit on badly by everyone, but that was mostly because people felt he was taking money out of the till due to his celebrity. Big Dave showed up, did his thing, and the best you can say about it was that we all forgot about it the next day.

Well, this isn't quite true.

Bellator hadn't quite become what it would become at that point, and Coker was still CEO at Strikeforce.

And, not only did they nearly give him a huge contract, he actually turned up at a Strikeforce event to announce he'd signed a two fight mega PPV deal. Which, unfortunately, wasn't true.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/410178-dave-batistas-strikeforce-deal-hits-two-major-snags

The Batista/Punk situations are pretty much identical, only Batista's age and other interests stopped him getting the contract he wanted. Punk was just young enough, with very little else going on, for the ever cynical Dana White to chuck some money at him and indulge his mid life fantasy.

They both shouldn't have bothered, and both had zero experience. That said, I do think it's somewhat admirable that even when the big contract didn't work out for Big Dave, he gave it a go anyway... though I think he probably had an idea that a big knockout might get him that fat contract.

*Edit* actually, I think at the time Lashley was in Strikeforce and that was the fight everyone was trying to make.

*EDIT 2* yep... https://www.cagesideseats.com/2010/7/14/1569458/strikeforce-wants-dave-batista-vs

God, that'd have been a bad fight.

Edited October 20 by d-d-d-dAz