Wrestling - Can Someone Explain

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Right,

I've been watching wrestling a bit recently, and it's changed a load since I last saw it. Why are RAW and Smackdown two different companies now?

Also, is it just be or do none of the wrestlers have any character? I mean, the all seem pretty much the same, even in terms of costume. The only one that looks any different is that middle Eastern guy, and seeing him on screen was the most horrendous thing I've witnessed in a long time - the reaction from the crowd, basically racism.

I've also seen Rick Flair 'fighting'. This guy must be over 50 now. It's ridiculous. This JBL guy must also be over 40. Randy Orton sounds like a porn stars name.

Also, why are all the big events now Pay Per Views? I wouldn't mind seeing this WrestleMania 21 (because it's been built up so much) but I'm not going to pay for the damn thing.

Anyway, what's going on with wrestling?

 

It's been steadily going this way for the past couple of years. I got back into it a couple of years ago, when we still got some of it on TV and not just sky. Also some of the big events were also shown. But about the time WWF and WCW combined that all ended. I just lost interest.

On a side note, the lack of personality is pretty unremovable now. Even when I last watched it there were very few who stood out and you could recognise. Most of them dressed the smae, and acted the same. Pretty boring stuff.

 

Holy moly, are we up to Wrestlemania 21 already?! The last one I saw was Wrestlemania 5...

Wrestling's not the same with Brutus the Barber Beefcake, The Million Dollar Man, and the Blue Blazer.

 

@Harbourboy, considering that the Blue Blazer (Owen Hart) died through a wrestling related accident some years ago... [not sure if that comment really had a point]

I think that Raw and Smackdown are two different 'companies' (in terms of on tv, they're still both co-owned by the same people) was an unsuccessful attempt to revitalise the WWE. It was after WCW and WWE/F merged (the latter bought out the former) and ECW had basically disappeared. When WCW and WWE/F were both active and running there was a lot of innovation and new ideas being tried because the companies were competing over ratings. However now the WWE have pretty much no-one to compete with (NWA:TNA are new and too small to compete with the WWE) and so their product is becoming stagnant. So to try to solve this they split the brands to create competition, unfortunately it didn't work as well as they'd hoped.

 

What they need to do to liven things up is to foster a rivalry between the locker rooms that's more than trash talk from the General Managers and people running their mouths from the Royal Rumble in January to Wrestlemania.

Randy Ornton is the sone of Cowboy Bob Ornton who was a sidekick to Rowdy Roddy Piper in the mid 80's

The brand split was set up because they had too many talented performers and too little television air time to show them off, so they were split into two groups so that the top guys didn't suffocate the new guys coming up (Like WCW which was also bought out in 2001).

And the lack of variety isn't that bad a thing though. Here's a site that chronicles some of the lamest gimmicks (warning that they may use foul language). http://www.wrestlecrap.com/

 

Yeesh. I haven't watched wrestling since Stone Cold Steve Austin was the new guy. And it was pretty bad back then already...


I hear that now it's like watching a frickin soap opera.

Ultimate Warrior for life

 

Ultimate Warrior! Million Dollar Man!, Hulk Hogan!, the Undertaker! Jake the Snake Roberts! Oh man, what memories! Owen Hart is dead???
I even played a game with those fighers, I remember Legion of Doom (what a guys!) or the best, the Steiner Brothers, what happen to those guys? Well, they say money makes the world go round so since some guys splited (when Razor Ramon, and others guys started with TNT WCW) I started to lose contact with them because they charged for every interesting fight.

 

Bring back Harley Race!

 

Barmy, I'll do my best...

I can recommend this site: www.lordsofpain.net
Although some of the columnists are extremely annoying and deserving of a torrent of invective (or maybe just a powerbomb onto their computer), The Wrath of Tito is usually worth a read.

What you're witnessing is the run-off of the most successful period ever in wrestling. Unfortunately, it seems that Creative (contradiction in terms) is stuck in a rut. The guys who aren't all the same tend to be languishing at the bottom of the card or on Heat/Velocity, which is a damn shame since most of them are excellent wrestlers. The Hurricane and Rosey (aka S.H.I.T, Super Hero In Training) are getting buried while that schmuck Gene Snitsky is wrestling for the Intercontinental Title. The energy that was once there (as well as some of the screwball stuff that took the intensity off) is missing, but hopefully it will return. Christian is my main hope for that, although Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, HHH and Flair can be damned funny as well.

Agreed - this was handled completely wrong. Hassan could have been the biggest babyface (good guy) in years, but instead they took the low road and worked off the "evil foreigner" angle. Ho hum - another play to middle-American bigotry, rather than getting the guy over as a man who'd never been handed a danm thing in his life and who worked like crazy to get to the top.

Flair's past his prime, certainly - but he's hilarious to watch. It's not how he wrestles, but what story it tells; he almost always ends up taking a beating after pulling out every dirty trick in the book. He doesn't wrestle often, and when he does, it's usually to act as a human shield for HHH. Not sure how old JBL is. Randy Orton is meant to sound like a porn star, since his gimmick was always that of a ladies man (and apparently backstage too, although much more obnoxious). But hey, if you want a porn star gimmick, check out Val Venis! Hang on, he's on Heat now... damn.

That's Wrestlemania for you - it's the equivalent of the Superbowl for wrestling. It kind of bothers me that they never give anything that good away on Raw or Smackdown (although Benoit vs Jericho from Japan a few weeks ago was awesome).

@ Sydax: The Undertaker is still going, but nearly everyone else on that list is gone. Hogan will be at Wrestlemania to get inducted into the Hall of Fame.

@ HB: About all you'll see of Harley Race is one of Triple H's signature moves, the leaping knee to the face. And you see that every time Triple H hits the ring. From what I hear, the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase will be returning to WWE, although in a non-performing role. That guy knew how to make you hate him, that's for sure...

 

You people actually watch that overhyped, fake dribble? Yeesh. HB, you've lost all respect in my eyes!

Damn horrible show...

 

It has somekind of entertainment value, it is like looking at a soap opera with lots of sometimes badly and sometimes welll coreographed fighting.

The Undertaker still wrestle and listening to the crowd he appears to be most popular wrestler by a vast margin. I know I like him better than most. JBL is a kickass bad guy though you just cant help but dislike him. Anyone know if Eugene will continue? I thought that was the best thing the wrestling society could have done, talk about empowering a group of people who are usually shoved away and ignored. Must have been heavenly for people with mental disabilities to see Eugene wrestle, especially since many of them might think it is for real.

 

Eugene injured his knee at a pay per view in January. He is expected to return.

JBL is basically the same mould as Ric Flair and Ted DiBiase. They did everything they could to scre the faces that challenged them, but when push came to shove, they could deliver the goods. maybe even gaining an edge from people that underestimated them (reflected in the script of course).

It's amazing that Flair can still wrestle. about 30 years ago, he was in a plane crash. The pilot was killed and the three other wrestlers never wrestled again. Flair supposedly broke his back...

 

Well. I haven't seen it in about 2 or 3 years now, back when they first split the RAW and Smackdown! rosters and personally it seemed like a very good idea for the very reason stated previously - it would give the younger up-and-comers a chance to shine. Since hearing that Bradshaw is now JBL and some kind of stockbroker-lokoing thing, that's crap. Bradshaw and Simmons rocked as the APA.

And Undertaker will always be "the big dog in the yard". I'm hard-pressed to think of anyone at all who has been as long with one company as Mark has with WWE.

Owen's death was tragic, only saw maybe 20 minutes of the RAW tribute the following Monday.

Are Foley and Austin still around? And PLEASE tell me The Rock is gone.

 

The Rock is making movies, but the WWE is hyping them...

Foley still pops up from time to time.

Austin is also making movies, and will be at WrestleMania...

The APA kicked ass...