OT: The WWE Thread

[N8isScofield]

I felt the same way for a long time until CM Punk saved the WWE in 2011. Then I took notice in the rest of the new generation of guys that are good (Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler, Antonio Cesaro, Dean Ambrose).

Yeah maybe at some point I'll watch again. I still pay attention whenever I hear that The Rock is back for a little while. Honestly I remember the particular story line that ruined it for me. It was that one after Kane took his mask off where I think Triple H was accusing him of having killed some girl or something. I just remember thinking that the unmasking was bad enough but that was the last straw lol. That was probably like 8-10 years ago now.

[wolfv]

HHH is doing a great job being the new Vince. He is a natural heel. I like Daniel Bryan, but his mic work still needs improvement, and he always looks like he's about to laugh. Wrestlers don't get enough credit imo. The great ones need to be in awesome shape, know how to wrestle, and know how to act in order to get the fans to give a damn. A lot of the guys these days just don't measure up with the guys from the past who could do it all

[IMAN5]

i haven't seen a dean ambrose match only his promos and attacks.

if he really as good as ya'll say he is.

how is the rest of the shield?

[guardplay320]

So disappointed Goldust couldn't pull it off; cause I know if he did it would've set up Cody Rhodes vs Orton in a revenge match. Was really good tonight though all in all

Golddust was a stall technique, but he sure can still go. There was no way some retired wrestler is going to come back and beat the WWE champion without a total screwjob ending. Very solid match. Golddust was always a master of in ring psychology and didn't disappoint last night.

Cody Rhodes will be back soon enough to go for his revenge (and I'm sure he won't be the only one involved in this - will Big Show be next after not knocking out Bryan?). Right now he's taking a break for his wedding and honeymoon though. That's probably one of the main reasons he was chosen for the role in this storyline, but a big role like this was long overdue for him.

[guardplay320]

i haven't seen a dean ambrose match only his promos and attacks.

if he really as good as ya'll say he is.

how is the rest of the shield?

Solid in the ring with his work, but a master of psychology in the ring. One of the best going.

[nyk4L7_21]

HHH is doing a great job being the new Vince. He is a natural heel. I like Daniel Bryan, but his mic work still needs improvement, and he always looks like he's about to laugh. Wrestlers don't get enough credit imo. The great ones need to be in awesome shape, know how to wrestle, and know how to act in order to get the fans to give a damn. A lot of the guys these days just don't measure up with the guys from the past who could do it all

Exactly. My argument to wrestling haters is always something along these lines. The acting, practicing the stunts, selling, and staying in the incredible shape they're in takes a lot of work...I agree with you on HHH he's doing awesome with his role and I love Paul Hayman (spelling?) too; in particular his facial expressions/reactions to everything.

[IMAN5]

What people who hate wrestling don't realize is that WWE literally has no offseason, it just keeps going and going and going. Actors get time off after movies, down time. Being a WWE wrestler/performer is one of the hardest jobs in the entertainment business.

[Part-time Lover]

What's the Wyatt family's gimmick?

Only started paying attention recently and read about them on Wiki and I thought it would be them against a reformed Brothers of Destruction on SummerSlam

Though I don't know if a BoD win would help the Wyatt's growth

[ctorres]

Backstage fallout from Smackdown last night.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKjSAHq-xJ4[/youtube]

I am completely OVER.....it

[KobeDwightPau]

What people who hate wrestling don't realize is that WWE literally has no offseason, it just keeps going and going and going. Actors get time off after movies, down time. Being a WWE wrestler/performer is one of the hardest jobs in the entertainment business.

True, its almost like a circus, and you need to work hard to become a wrestler so you can actually perform in the ring, and be able to carry yourself on a mic.

[ctorres]

What people who hate wrestling don't realize is that WWE literally has no offseason, it just keeps going and going and going. Actors get time off after movies, down time. Being a WWE wrestler/performer is one of the hardest jobs in the entertainment business.

True, its almost like a circus, and you need to work hard to become a wrestler so you can actually perform in the ring, and be able to carry yourself on a mic.

I think people also fail to understand the art form of staging a fight and making it look believable, it's a live-action movie. The amount of intellect it takes to choreograph an entire match but also effectively improvise when necessary is extremely overlooked. Not to mention, fighting alone isn't what keeps people interested, you need storytelling to fully compliment it.

I was a huge fan of wrestling during the Attitude Era, but didn't realize the depth and essence of professional wrestling until just recently.

[Bill Pidto]

What people who hate wrestling don't realize is that WWE literally has no offseason, it just keeps going and going and going. Actors get time off after movies, down time. Being a WWE wrestler/performer is one of the hardest jobs in the entertainment business.

True, its almost like a circus, and you need to work hard to become a wrestler so you can actually perform in the ring, and be able to carry yourself on a mic.

I think people also fail to understand the art form of staging a fight and making it look believable, it's a live-action movie. The amount of intellect it takes to choreograph an entire match but also effectively improvise when necessary is extremely overlooked. Not to mention, fighting alone isn't what keeps people interested, you need storytelling to fully compliment it.

I was a huge fan of wrestling during the Attitude Era, but didn't realize the depth and essence of professional wrestling until just recently.

Once again, this is my biggest gripe with the product today. The new generation of wrestlers - including WWE's biggest stars - are just not as good at this anymore. They aren't as artistic, if you will. All the greats from the 90's and the early attitude era put these new guys to shame.

The two best right now for me are Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose. I even put them ahead of CM Punk who I think is a little overrated. Dolph and Dean are real throwbacks. They know how to pace and how to sell moves and make the whole thing look believable. Both have a great look for the business as well. If the WWE ever let either of them improvise on the mic a little bit, you'd be able to pluck them out of the show today and stick them anywhere between 1994 and 2002.

I'm with you though. It's definitely an art form, and the greatest wrestlers we've ever seen are probably some of the most talented people in the entertainment industry. Even though I watch it way less and watch it for the laughs more than I do for the excitement... I still watch, and will always appreciate it.

[ctorres]

[Once again, this is my biggest gripe with the product today. The new generation of wrestlers - including WWE's biggest stars - are just not as good at this anymore. They aren't as artistic, if you will. All the greats from the 90's and the early attitude era put these new guys to shame.

I think there are plenty of wrestlers right now who can be just artistic, but aren't allowed as many creative freedoms as wrestlers in the 90's. I get the feel sometimes that WWE Creative not only has a hand on what guys say on the mic, but they also have a hand in the in-ring storytelling. They put guys on television matches who you know if given the freedom can have an unbelievable 20 minute match, but Creative likely forces the wrestlers to either make it a squash or not go over 8 minutes. Who knows, maybe a lot of wrestlers these days need to be spoon fed by Creative. It's hard to say which side is at fault.

The Attitude era was influenced by Vince telling the wrestlers that he couldn't spoon feed gimmicks anymore and that he needed wrestlers to take it upon themselves to work on their characters and get over with the crowd. Jim Ross' role was finding the talent and signing them. It was a perfect storm.

[Fury]

The in-ring aspect of wrestling will be just as good if not better than the Attitude Era in a few years. There is more emphasis on signing and developing dudes who can work over muscle men, due to the steroid frenzy. Triple H is going to build around guys who know the business over converted athletes or actors from other avenues.

[ctorres]

The in-ring aspect of wrestling will be just as good if not better than the Attitude Era in a few years. There is more emphasis on signing and developing dudes who can work over muscle men, due to the steroid frenzy. Triple H is going to build around guys who know the business over converted athletes or actors from other avenues.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of the new development center. I think the WWE will still take muscle men, but they will be much more hands-on with their development as wrestlers and characters before making it onto the show.

[ctorres]

On another note, the divas division is intriguing to me at the moment. The heel/face lines have not been clearly established. The Total Divas faction has plenty of fans who love the show rooting for them, but AJ Lee has plenty of wrestling fans rooting for her.

Last night was a prime example of the lines being blurred. Commentators have been siding with the total divas the whole time, but AJ is speaking "truth", making it really difficult on the commentators to disagree with AJ and transition the storyline. It has lead to really awkward segments each time AJ is in the booth with them.

While Brie Bella is a natural heel, Natalya and Naomi are supposed to be faces. However, all three ganging up and bullying on AJ is a complete heel tactic, while AJ being pulled out of the ring by her "friends" was a face tactic. What AJ has been calling out the total divas on is the same thing any face would have done. It's almost as if the WWE originally intended AJ the heel in this storyline, but that idea fell flat on their faces and now it's been a scramble to get the story to flow.

Put it this way, if it was Kaitlyn instead of AJ in this storyline, it would be clearly established that Kaitlyn is the clear face, and the total divas are the heels. However, because AJ has treaded the line of face and heel for so long, it's almost as if AJ finally took it upon herself to become a babyface with how she delivered her "pipe bomb" and the fans are not letting themselves be manipulated by how the WWE intended to present the story.

I think the WWE completely underestimated how much of a pop AJ would get if she went head to head against the entire Total Divas cast. Who knows, maybe the WWE intended for the disarray among the divas division all along?

[Fury]

WTF happened to Kaitlyn? Her and AJ were having legit matches before she disappeared.

[JBreezeNY]

The in-ring aspect of wrestling will be just as good if not better than the Attitude Era in a few years. There is more emphasis on signing and developing dudes who can work over muscle men, due to the steroid frenzy. Triple H is going to build around guys who know the business over converted athletes or actors from other avenues.

The Ruthless Aggression era is already arguably better than the Attitude Era wrestling wise. In order for the next era of wrestling to better than the Attitude Era WWE is gonna have to let the wrestlers spread their wings. I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees the same match or just a variation of the same match happen almost every week.

Remember when the Shield was facing Daniel Bryan & Kane for like 3 weeks straight? Or Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes 2 weeks straight?

Maybe they're doing it so the wrestlers can get familiar with each other but it brings the show down IMO when they constantly do it. We need more highflying, more fast paced but not ROH reckless levels, more engaging & interesting characters, more backstage & non-assisted promo's.. If WWE does that we could have a really good PG era, maybe not as good as the 80's PG but a real good one.

[ctorres]

WTF happened to Kaitlyn? Her and AJ were having legit matches before she disappeared.

My guess is that they're saving her for later in the Total Divas vs non-Total Divas storyline. Kaitlyn hasn't chosen an alliance yet. It could all lead up to a Survivor Series match between the Total Divas and the non-Total Divas.

[ctorres]

The Ruthless Aggression era is already arguably better than the Attitude Era wrestling wise.

I got lost in that era due to the overabundance of wrestlers on the roster. You had the old WWE guys, old WCW guys, new WWE guys who became stars (John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton), and then a bunch of new guys who didn't amount to anything. It was a mess.

It's much more focused now and the WWE takes their time to develop new talent before bringing in so many new wrestlers at once. A smaller and more concentrated roster has lead to more consistency and balance. It makes it much easier to follow certain wrestlers when you know they're likely to be around for a while.