Wrestling...thats right, Wrestling!

[pilferk]

To Pilferk:

I was at this small old school wrestling forum, and one of the members was going to do this site about dead wrestlers, but it never got off the ground. He posted this small collage, and its incredibly moving. You look at these guys and its just unreal that all of them are gone. I knew they were all dead already, but seeing it like this really puts it in perspective.

The collage is great.

I agree, irreplaceable.

It's amazing to see all the faces in one place....it conjures up both a distinct sense of nostalgia and a huge sense of sorrow.  Most of those guys were HUGE when I first got into wrestling back in the 80's.....and to think they're all gone, and most of them gone way too young....just makes you think of some of the tragedy surrounding this business.


On another note:
The other night I was watching that MSG Classics show and Gorilla Monsoon was doing play by play.  It actually choked me up for a second, remembering him, and remembering WWF Monday Night on USA (the precursor to Raw).

[pilferk]

I didn't know Pillman was in The Hart Foundation. I guess I didn't watch it at that time.? My interest in wrestling always comes in cycles. I guess it was in an off cycle at that point. I thought Neidhart might be who you were referring to.

Or you were watching WCW around that time...1997 was the thick of the NWO storyline.

I missed a lot of the "later" Hart Foundation stuff, too.  I was "away" from wrestling from around the time Hogan beat Yokozuna  for the title (1994) til around the time the NWO formed (1996), and pretty much ignored the WWE even when I did come back.  I'd catch it in dribs and drabs, but nothing consistent. Once WWE bought WCW, my interest started to dwindle again.  I catch it again, in dribs and drabs, now.  I was hoping ECW would be allowed to be ECW, and that rekindled my interest, but.....I'm not impressed so far.

[jameslofton29]

On another note:
The other night I was watching that MSG Classics show and Gorilla Monsoon was doing play by play.  It actually choked me up for a second, remembering him, and remembering WWF Monday Night on USA (the precursor to Raw).

That is the most underrated wrestling show in history. Hell, on Mondays, my parents let me stay up late just so I could watch that. It wasn't just the wrestling that made that show great(about half of it was reruns of the saturday-sunday shows), it was watching Monsoon and Heenan do the commentating. They had such an incredible chemistry.

Yeah, I watched WCW during that NWO stuff(well, for awhile). It was interesting at first, because it was the first time a "takeover" had ever happened. But as usual, they didn't know when to quit and it spiraled out of control. A bunch of different factions of the NWO was ridiculous. That bullshit caused me to quit watching wrestling for about 3 or 4 years.

[Evolution]

I read that had Eric Bischoff got his way, he was going to rename WCW into NWO completely.

[Evolution]

As SummerSlam approaches, Hulk Hogan is giving more excuses as to why he will not be able to work the pay per view.

WWE.com posted a story yesterday in which Randy Orton commented by saying that Hulk Hogan was faking his injury because he doesn?t want to wrestle him. They have even uploaded a video of Hogan walking around and dancing on yesterday?s Live With Regis And Kelly. To check out the full article click here.

Hogan also made an appearance on CNN?s Showbiz Tonight yesterday. Hogan told the same story that he has been telling other media outlets; that he injured his good knee when getting up from his couch. He was asked on the show if he would be wrestling at SummerSlam and Hogan responded by saying the following: "We're going to wait a few more days, see where I'm at. But, you know, it's - the odds are stacked against me. You know, when you're 50 years old with a knee replacement, hip replacement, now another torn ligament, you shouldn't be wrestling."

Source: PWInsider


I can't be bothered with this shite. If he pulls out any later than this WWE are fucked for the main event.

[Hammy]

These people are all legends. Absolutely irreplaceable. I dont care how many John Cenas and Kanes and Austins Mcmahon tries to throw at people. They will never come close to having the impact that these guys(and Miss Elizabeth) had.

They are all legends and sorely missed, that's a given, but i don't think any of them had the same impact Austin did.

One that i miss loads is Mr. Perfect, he's in league with Ted Dibiase as one of the greatest wrestlers to never win the big one....

Yeah, I mean during an event it's pretty ill-advised, I guess the ref in the D'Lo/Droz match didn't see the spill in time or something. After the main event though it's quite cool.


I was just thinking the other day about the resurgence of the tag team division in 1999-2001 and how interesting that of the 3 teams that spearheaded it, Edge and Christian, The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz, that Edge and Christian were the only ones to go onto big success in singles competition. I always thought at least Matt Hardy could have been a player. Jeff Hardy lost what made him unique when his body forced him to switch to a safer style and The Dudleyz could have had at least a family feud over the IC Title. Their ECW matches together were quite intense.


Getting into wrestling in early 1999, I was always used to having a pretty large tag team division, albeit hastily thrown together at times. You had in mid-2000, The Dudleyz, Hardy, E and C, T and A, Kaientai, The Hollys, Malenko/Saturn, Roadogg and X-Pac, Too Cool, Bossman/Buchanan, Head Cheese and many more. You could actually have tag matches that didn't involve the title in anyway. The way WWE treats the tag belts these days is terrible. Trading them between superteams like The McMahons and DX would even be a step up to what they are now. Beating a dead horse in this thread I know but it really is shite!

Could not agree more.

A tag team title was an art form at one point.

You could put the world champ in and another main eventer against the tag champs and the Tag champs were favourites. . . Thats how it should be.

Edge and Christian were always gonna be huge coz they had the personality as a team and individually. The dudleys and the Hardys are and always was better as tag teams.

But if you think about Teams like:

The smoking guns
The Rockers
New Age Outlaws
APA
Legion Of Doom
E & C
Hardy boyz
Dudleys
The Quebecers
Men on a Mission

thats just a few but all of them were proper teams with double team moves. .  You dont see that much of that these days which is a shame

What annoys me with the tag team state of things is creative is lazy when coming up with new ones.  You don't even have to sign new talent, there are plenty of guys jobbing as single stars with no prospects who would be good as a tag team.  Get some matching gear, and a team name and you've got some great combinations.  How about Conway & Venis, 2 self obsessed guys, decent physiques doing the Pornstar/'Ladies Man' thing, they are both solid workers, they could form a team without having to even tweak their gimmicks too much.  I remember back in the day they did that with lower-midcard guys going nowhere, look at Hercules & Paul Roma, they made Power & Glory who i thought were pretty damn good.

you want tag teams: Go rent some old tapes and watch the Road Warriors, Demolition, The hart Foundation, British Bulldogs, Tully Blanchard and Arne Anderson, Ivan and Nikita Koloff, The Midnight Express, The Rock n Roll Express, Powers of Pain, Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez, The Freebirds, The Von Erichs. Now there are some fucking tag teams.

I loved the old school tag stuff.  I've got all the survivor series on tape and the first 2 for tag wrestling were fucking classic.  Those Tag Team Survivor matches they used to have were great.

Survivor Series '87

British Bulldogs
Rougeau Brothers
Young Stallions
Killer Bees
Strike Force
 
Vs.

Demolition
Hart Foundation
Bolsheviks
Islanders
Dream Team II

& Survivor Series '88

Powers of Pain
The Rockers
The Young Stallions
The British Bulldogs
The Hart Foundation

Vs.

Demolition
The Brain Busters
The Bolsheviks
The Conquistadors
Rougeau Brothers

Hell at the '88 Survivor Series the match went over 40 minutes, it's a classic, any fan of tag wrestling really has to see that.

The other night I was watching that MSG Classics show and Gorilla Monsoon was doing play by play.  It actually choked me up for a second, remembering him, and remembering WWF Monday Night on USA (the precursor to Raw).

A classic and upseting moment was a few years ago when Bobby Heenan was inducted into the Hall of Fame and he said, 'I only wish Gorilla was here', it was quite upsetting, those 2 ruled together and are easily my fave commentary tandem ever, closely followed by Gorilla/Ventura.

I can't be bothered with this shite. If he pulls out any later than this WWE are fucked for the main event.

Fuck him!  With their excellent promo's and build up Foley & Flair have soared past them, their feud is HOT, and that's why i'm ordering Summerslam (Plus the fact i'm addicted and watch all the events anyway.... )

[BlowUpYourVideo]

Survivor Series '88

Powers of Pain
The Rockers
The Young Stallions
The British Bulldogs
The Hart Foundation

Vs.

Demolition
The Brain Busters
The Bolsheviks
The Conquistadors
Rougeau Brothers

Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart on the same team. At Survivor Series as well.

[Evolution]

You know what WWE should do? Instead of repeating the whoke draft idea from previous years, why not revive the "open contracts" storyline they did in 2002? They could have Teddy Long and a newly-appointed General Manager(hell bring back Bisch!) do kind of a bargaining thing for new folk. Guys who need an overhaul or just fresh opponents.

Rey Mysterio could go over to Raw and make an even bigger name for himself tangling with the likes of Shawn Michaels(remember their match at the Eddie Tribute Raw?) and Edge.

Triple H could jump to Smackdown to boost the ratings a little. He could have another program with Batista, feud with Booker one last time or maybe make stars out of people like Bobby Lashley.

Even the Intercontinental title division could use some new blood. Get Shelton back over to Smackdown for matches with Finlay and Matt Hardy and stick Super Crazy over on Raw to get in there with Carlito and Nitro.

[Neemo]

why not have like a intercontinental show with smackdown and a heavywieght show with Raw?


like make it 2 different tiers...and actually try and incorporate a real style ranking system for the title matches

[Evolution]

That's a suggestion I've never heard before. It could work! I always wanted a ranking system to take place in WWE. It would make every single match mean something.

[Hammy]

That's a suggestion I've never heard before. It could work! I always wanted a ranking system to take place in WWE. It would make every single match mean something.

A 'Proper' rankings system is a bit too much if you ask me.  You just need the commentators to acknowledge how winning and losing has an affect on the chance to get a title shot.  I mean now you lose a feud then get a title shot which makes no sense.  Back in the day Jesse Ventura would say stuff like if the Hart Foundation lose this title match with all the teams here in the WWF they'll be right back at the bottom of the ladder and may not be able to earn another shot for a year.  It was always like there was a rankings thing, you just never saw it, i mean teams came into the company and went on like a 6 months winning streak before getting a shot.......

[Evolution]

It would just make the titles mean so much more if guys voiced their intentions about which ranking table they wanted to be in etc.

A match win could mean you rise up a place and a loss means you go down. Seeing them on the website just puts things like winning streaks into more perspective and whatnot. It also gives WWE a more legit appearance as like a real sport.

[A Private Eye]

I read about RVD, sounds good. I'm expect a Big Show Vs RVD Vs Sabu Vs Kurt Angle match at Summerslam. All Big Show can do is add to that match, so should be pretty good. Raw already has 4 matches added to Summerslam. Smackdown only has the World Title Match announced today and ECW hasn't any yet.

Isn't there Taker vs Khali booked as well?

[Evolution]

Oh yeah right enough. Shows how memorable the feud is to me 

[Neemo]

That's a suggestion I've never heard before. It could work! I always wanted a ranking system to take place in WWE. It would make every single match mean something.

A 'Proper' rankings system is a bit too much if you ask me.? You just need the commentators to acknowledge how winning and losing has an affect on the chance to get a title shot.? I mean now you lose a feud then get a title shot which makes no sense.? Back in the day Jesse Ventura would say stuff like if the Hart Foundation lose this title match with all the teams here in the WWF they'll be right back at the bottom of the ladder and may not be able to earn another shot for a year.? It was always like there was a rankings thing, you just never saw it, i mean teams came into the company and went on like a 6 months winning streak before getting a shot.......

well if they did it right there would be feuds as the player moved up in rank....from like the guy above and the guy below in the rankings...and as i seem to recall there was a bit of a system in place back in the day...like if a guy wasn't qualified for the match the champ could just not accept the challenge.

I dunno and realistically Rey Mysterio could never beat the undertaker or angle or whoever he'd be stuck in the intercontinental matches...and as guys get bigger and better they could move up or drop the IC Title for a shot at the heavyweight division...I think a more realistic approach to the "sport" would be a boost after years of anarchy...also if somebody comes back then they gotta work up to contention again instead of coming in after vacation or injury and contending for the title immediately

[Evolution]

In an exclusive interview with WWE.com, when asked if he?d be at SummerSlam, a very serious Hulk Hogan said: ?F*** yeah.?

Not only did Hogan promise that he would be present at SummerSlam to collide with his nemesis, Randy Orton, the Hulkster also said he will also be live on RAW this Monday to prove that Hulkamania is still alive and ready to run wild all over the Legend Killer on Aug. 20.

?I?m not doing it for me; I?m doing it for all the Hulkamaniacs,? said an intense Hogan. ?I?ve got a bad knee and I?ve been really concerned about hurting it more. I?ve got a lot going on in my family right now?but I realize what?s important to me and that?s answering the bell once again in my career,? he explained.

As reported by WWE.com last Friday, the Hulkster suffered a partially torn meniscus in his right knee. As a result of this painful injury, it was unknown whether or not it would prevent the WWE Hall of Famer from competing against Orton in less than two weeks at SummerSlam.

Since learning of the injury, Randy Orton has claimed that Hogan isn?t really hurt, calling into question the Hulkster?s integrity. Just this past Monday on RAW, Orton said that Hogan doesn?t want to meet him at SummerSlam because ?he?s afraid his legend will be killed forever.? (Read more of Orton?s comments)

?Randy Orton wants this to be all about him,? said the Hall of Famer in response to the Legend Killer?s insolent comments. ?I?m ticked off that Orton has disrespected my family, disrespected the business and disrespected WWE fans ? but this is bigger than that. This is about standing up for what Hulkamania?s always believed in,? Hogan exclaimed, seemingly Hulking up over the phone.

According to Hogan, he is starting to regain mobility in his knee but it is still very stiff. The Immortal One said that his meniscus tear ?hurts like hell,? but he?s overcome injury many times before in his famed career and has prevailed.

?A lot of people don?t know this,? he explained, ?but when I won the WWE Championship at Madison Square Garden against the Iron Sheik, I blew out my knee during the match. [That night], I sucked it up and went on to win the title.?

In response to the Legend Killer?s claims, Hogan will return this Monday when RAW emanates from Charlottesville, Va. Six days later, he will defend both the honor of his family and the legacy of his own namesake at SummerSlam.

?I?m going to show up in Boston, which has always been a hotbed of Hulkamania, brother. [At SummerSlam], I?m going to walk to the ring with my red and yellow, stand in that ring, and I?m going to kick Randy Orton?s ass.?


Oh, what a hero......

[A Private Eye]

Oh yeah right enough. Shows how memorable the feud is to me?

I'll always watch Takers matches simply cos of who he is but I can't take the Khali feud seriously at all, after the initial shock at the size of Khali all I can do is laugh at the size of his chin, it's massive ? ? I've never seen anybody who looks so thick either, there's nothing going on between those greasy ears at all.

[Evolution]

That's a suggestion I've never heard before. It could work! I always wanted a ranking system to take place in WWE. It would make every single match mean something.

A 'Proper' rankings system is a bit too much if you ask me.  You just need the commentators to acknowledge how winning and losing has an affect on the chance to get a title shot.  I mean now you lose a feud then get a title shot which makes no sense.  Back in the day Jesse Ventura would say stuff like if the Hart Foundation lose this title match with all the teams here in the WWF they'll be right back at the bottom of the ladder and may not be able to earn another shot for a year.  It was always like there was a rankings thing, you just never saw it, i mean teams came into the company and went on like a 6 months winning streak before getting a shot.......

well if they did it right there would be feuds as the player moved up in rank....from like the guy above and the guy below in the rankings...and as i seem to recall there was a bit of a system in place back in the day...like if a guy wasn't qualified for the match the champ could just not accept the challenge.

I dunno and realistically Rey Mysterio could never beat the undertaker or angle or whoever he'd be stuck in the intercontinental matches...and as guys get bigger and better they could move up or drop the IC Title for a shot at the heavyweight division...I think a more realistic approach to the "sport" would be a boost after years of anarchy...also if somebody comes back then they gotta work up to contention again instead of coming in after vacation or injury and contending for the title immediately

Stuff like if an ex-champion loses his rematch and goes back to the bottom of the ranking would prevent things like title trades like RVD and Benjamin in May.

Oh yeah right enough. Shows how memorable the feud is to me 

I'll always watch Takers matches simply cos of who he is but I can't take the Khali feud seriously at all, after the initial shock at the size of Khali all I can do is laugh at the size of his chin, it's massive    I've never seen anybody who looks so thick either, there's nothing going on between those greasy ears at all.

Haha yeah, he almost fell over by putting his foot on Taker's chest on Smackdown last week. He had to steady himself with his arms.

[A Private Eye]

I noticed that clumsy oaf. Can't think Takers got long left in the ring which is a shame, would love to see a Taker vs Batista title feud before he goes, although they are both face so I don't know how they'd work it, but it's be worth seeing 

[Hammy]

I noticed that clumsy oaf. Can't think Takers got long left in the ring which is a shame, would love to see a Taker vs Batista title feud before he goes, although they are both face so I don't know how they'd work it, but it's be worth seeing?

'Taker is at tha stage now where i think he should pick his matches carefully, so he can still have some classics.

Guys i'd like to see him fight would be....

Kurt Angle (Their match at No Way Out and rematch on Smackdown were both fantastic, easily his best 2 matches all year...)

HBK (Their matches in '97 - especially the Hell In A Cell were great, i'd love to see them go at it one last time...)

Lashley (Have him give the young guy the 'rub' so to speak, a heel Lashley would make this feud good, but only if he had a decent mouthpiece....)

Umaga (The dude is starting to grow on me and now he's being placed in the ring with better guys rather than just having squash matches he's showing himself to be fairly decent, this is the kind of monster 'Taker should be feuding with and putting over...)