Educate me on WWE...:confused:

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Hey, Ive just started working with a young intellectually disable man who really really really loves WWE. Unfortunately, Ive only just started watching it recently, and in an unrelated way. I dont know much about it, so could those of you who are in the know bring me up to speed? He has a lot of WWE dvds, he loves them, and I would like to get into it so that we can talk about it together.

 

Er, bring you up to speed how exactly? The plots, the "wrestlers", the structure of the business or something else?

 

The plots bascially, and some of the wrestlers. Ive seen Monday night something twice now, and it was actually really cool, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But a lot of things confuse me solely because its like jumping in the deep end. Knowing the plots would be a good place to start so I can talk to my service user about them.

 

I believe Raw is the Monday show, supposedly the most prestigious one (it is taped live, I believe), ECW airs on Tuesday (used to be another federation WWE bought, now is mostly a show which airs people that don't make it to the two big shows), and Smackdown on Friday. Every month or so there is a PPV (pay-per-view, usually where the bigger events happen) on Sunday. The three shows are supposed to be separate, with their own management and rosters, but crossovers are quite common.

I mostly follow Smackdown, and watch the other two only very rarely. As far as I know on Smackdown the big plot revolves around how the champion (Edge) tries to keep the title by cheating and getting help from his "wife" (commissioner Vickie Guerrero). They are sometimes helped by the Big Show, but he has said he wants a shot at the title, and he hints about an affair or something with Vickie. Jeff Hardy used to be champion before he was betrayed by his brother Matt (who used to be the ECW champ before losing to Jack Swagger and moving to Smackdown), now I'm not very sure what he's going to do, but in the short term a feud between the two is obvious. Other likely rivalries include MVP (out of a long losing streak and on a roll) / Shelton Benjamin, Triple H/Kozlov (which may be changed as Umaga is back and Triple H will possibly move to Raw), and possibly Undertaker/Big Show. As for the characters, that can be a rather long topic...

 

Thanks heaps, its a good start. The guy I work with doesnt talk much about complicated things, so what you have told me so far is plenty of things to talk about with him. I might watch some more of the Raw stuff. Last I saw it was JBL and someone else talking about a fight, and that old guy I remember from the 80s was on it with Jericho (I think) and he smacked him in the face, looked pretty funny. And I saw The Undertaker doing some sweet moves too. Im not particularly sure what this guy follows, I wasnt aware there was multiple things. I will ask him next Tuesday when I take him out next, and come back with some more questions.

 

NP. I'm sure DotW and martaug can tell you a lot more, but I got the feeling at least DotW isn't a big fan of WWE. Call it a hunch

 

If this was about the Attitude era, I could be more helpful, but if we're talking about the current product... well, you don't want to get me started.

 

I will find out on Tuesday afternoon what he likes, and come back with questions.

 

OK so I found out today that my client likes ECW, and not Raw very much. Could someone bring me up to date with whats what? And the concise version please, like just the basics of whats going on etc.

 

Extremely Crappy Wrestling? Except for Dreamer retiring if he doesen't win the "ECW" --the quotes are because I spit on this title because it's worthless, and defended on a worthless brand. Anyway, Dreamer retires if he doesen't win the "ECW" Championship before the end of his contract, which I have an odd feeling could be his swansong title run.

Other than that, the current "ECW" Champ sucks. He has no mic skills, and he's average in the ring. Think of this ECW Zombie as televised developmental.

Anyway, that pathetic sorry excuse of a champion which was nothing more than a lucky punk on a good evening's involved in a feud for that piece of crap title with -- gah, it hurts to say it... Christian. Yes, THAT Christian.

Other than that, Mark Henry is involved in a "feud" with DJ Gabriel, which is basically nothing more than a dancing moron (I'd use another term, but censoring doesen't allow me) with a silicon-inflated cow. Until a few hours ago, he was said to be "undefeated". It's hard not to be undefeated when your competition is jobbers.

Then there's Nattie Neidhart managing some guy which is appearantly was the last trainee before the legendary Hart Family Dungeon closed.

Finlay and his little bastard makes appearances every now and then, and so does the Boogeyman.

"ECW" sucks. Sorry, but that's a dose of cold, hard truth brought to you by Mr. Negativity himself.

 

Sounds like a soap to me.

 

Yep, it is. It's just focused towards guys & kids instead of housewives.

Actually DotW, tj wilson(going by tyson kidd in ecw) was part of the new hart foundation in FCW along with dh smith with natalya as their manager. For some reason they didn't bring them up as a group.

I disagree with DotW about the ecw champion, jack swagger, i think in a few years he will be a main eventer. Notice that i said a few years, he needs a little more seasoning first though.

Oh DotW, apparently vince is already down on christians character so don't expect to see him on raw or smackdown any time soon.

 

Forgive my ignorance (I'm not in to the fake "wrestling" scene that includes a bunch of oiled up guys on steroids sitting on other guy's faces) But what happened to the WWF?

If you want a real fight...watch Ultimate Fighting. I went to a match when the sport was still being held in high school gyms...pretty cool stuff. Seeing a guy who knows Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and Kung Fu beat the living snot of someone who knows wresting and basic kick boxing is pretty cool.

 

They got their asses sued by the other WWF - World Wildlife Fund, or something like that -- anyway a company nobody gives a flying [censored] about, so they had to rename. Renaming also marked the death of the Attitude Era, the golden era of adult-orientated WWF, 24/7 Hardcore Title matches... boy, I miss those days.

 

Also during the Attitude era (1997 to 2002), a group called the Parent's Television Council targetted them and campaigned their advertisers, threatening consumer boycots if they didn't cut their sponsorship of the World Wrestling Federation. A number of companies did comply, but new sponsors were found that paid a higher dollar. But Vince still sued their asses and the estate of Steve Allen, who was their spokesman, and the guy that presented their case to these companies...

I'm guessing that these headaches and the failure of their competition (WCW, ECW) led to safer, more kid friendly story lines that suck...

 

My client says that Raw is like DOOL, and I tend to agree. I watch ECW when I can so that I can keep up with my clients interests, though his love for rap and hip hop has yet to grow on me. Im not sure about who all these wrestlers are, like why is Christian and Jack Swagger doing fights a lot? And whats up with that guy that looks like the rapper from 2Unlimited? Everytime he comes out I half expect him to start rapping about there being no limit or asking if y'all ready for this. His costume is really girly too, and his stupid fringe sucks. Also, why did that weird guy come out from under the ring to get that guys sister with some worms or something?

 

Christian and Swagger... well, imo they are the only thing worth watching on ECW, at least until TJ Wilson gets some decent competition - I hope the rumors about Lo-ki, Kaval or however he's supposed to be called being injured are false. Christian spent some time in the TNA and from what I heard (and what little I actually saw) he was pretty good there. He may not quite have the charisma of Edge, but he's certainly better than a feud on a semi-forgotten show. His last match with Swagger had some of the best "selling*" of an injury that I've seen lately.

Anyway, I think it just started with Swagger going to the stage and calling out Finlay (or that midget who's supposed to be his son, Hornswaggle), then Christian came out out of the blue and basically told Swagger that he's challenging him from the ECW title. Not exactly the best buildup for a feud, I can tell you that. The feud itself I have no problems with: Swagger imo has quite a bit of potential, and could benefit from a feud with an experienced veteran and an established name such as Christian. On the other hand, Christian has been out for a while, so it might not be a very bad move to reintroduce him to the WWE audience. It may also be a test to see if he's over, in case WWE wants to be careful and is not sure if they can trust him. IMO, they can - unless the crowd cheers are completely fake, people seemed to be into the match and he can be as big in the WWE as he was - if not bigger. For now, as far as I know Christian won a non-title match and lost a title match; I think he may lose one or two matches to give Swagger a credibility rub, but eventually get a ECW title run or two. Still, unless he's given the herculean task of rebuilding ECW's credibility, I think that when the draft comes he should switch to whichever show Edge is on. These guys are imo the best tag team in the WWE in the 2000s - not having them together, either as allies or as enemies, just doesn't make sense.

The rest of the guys... Mark Henry is an alright big guy, but he needs someone good to feud with. In a match with Matt Hardy, he could do ok. If he's put with someone who can't wrestle much, you might as well take a bathroom break when his match comes. The worms guy - Boogeyman - has a somewhat interesting gimmick, but doesn't seem to have either the in-ring skills nor the personality to make it work well, right now he's somewhat of a comedy character. Tyson Kidd is promising imo, and while I'd rather see him in a Foundation 2.0, he seems as a decent wrestler himself. If Katie Lea and Paul Burchill are still there I think they could have a good feud with TJ/Nattie; Paul was rather underrated on Raw and Katie Lea is one of the better women on the WWE roster, so a match with Nattie could be a treat. As for the rapper, I don't know who that's supposed to be. Did they ditch R-Truth in ECW? The guy was quite popular on Raw.

@Kitrax: interesting, I've heard from guys interested in MMA that boxers can be very nasty to fight against.

*: selling: making something appear real, basically.

 

Nah, the rumors of a Low-Ki *neck* injury are false, but he is legitimately injured, a knee injury, to be precise.

As for Boogeyman, his limited in-ring work is due to the fact the man behind the persona isn't getting younger. If my info is correct, the guy is 44 year old... which places him on par with Taker. The Deadman has also been on a reduced schedule, and he's in his final months... the current plans are for him to retire at WM25.

As for Christian in Extremely Crappy Wrestling... I think they're probing how over the guy is with the fans before moving him back to either Blah or Crapdown, though I hear Vince is down on his character already. The future is murky for Captain Charisma in Wish We Were Entertaining. I had a chance to speak with the guy a bit following a TNA house show in Quebec City quite some time ago, and he's a very talkable, very cool and laid-back guy. There was a possibility to get photographed with the WHC, though no amount of bargaining could get me a snapshot of me, the WHC and Christian instead of Kurt angle. Oh well.

As for the Hardy/Hardy feud, not sure in which direction they're heading, though with Jeff out of MiTB, I smell a "grudge" match in this reheat of a feud.

 

When I heard the commentators say that the way he was twitching his fingers is signs of nerve damage, I nearly fell off my chair laughing. It was good, nearly believable, but I know enough about nerve damage to know its fake.

Tyson Kidd, Ive just found out. Everytime he comes out to do a match I automatically think of this...



...and...



...because they have similar haircuts, especially later on in the mid-90s.

Apparently Mark Henry is the strongest man in the world, but I dunno. He is huge, but if he really WAS the strongest man in the world he wouldnt be doing ECW eh? If I was the strongest man in the world Id be doing something other than ECW for sure.

After tomorrow I might have some more silly questions about wrestling, because I think it might rain and so I will have to hang out with my client in his caravan and watch old wrestling dvds.

 

Well, I'm sure it's not supposed to be professional (actually, if it's "nearly believable" and you know a think or two about nerve damage that brings it up another nothch), but what I liked most is how he kept showing the injury. Usually wrestlers, especially "face" wrestlers, just "forget" a supposedly debilitating injury and go on a rampage. Batista was somewhat infamous for such instances, though of course the classics were Hogan and Warrior back in the day

I think he was in strongman competitions, but he's not a Strongest man as far as I know. It's a gimmick - just as Kozlov is not actually a Russian (though he's Ukrainian, close enough), and Kofi is not Jamaican (he's Ghanaian).

Hardy/Hardy kinda reminds me of the classical Owen/Bret feud, but... well, I may be somewhat biased but the Hardys are not even nearly in the Harts' league.