Post by Board Admin on Apr 25, 2011 13:27:20 GMT
Hey everybody, I thought it would be a nice enough time for one of those posts, where one of the Scyther Inc team give there personal opinions over wrestling. We have had a decade in review, the Cena/Rock saga and the happenings with Bryan Danielson in the Summer of 2010, all of this go me thinking about the actual sport of wrestling, and how it all come what it is today. Please read this in notion of this being my personal opinions and thoughts. If you have you own or want to challenge my ideas then please go ahead and repost.
So Professional Wrestling, the sport we love to hate and in terms of it's popularity around the world compared to other sports, you hate to love it. Things like Soccer/Football and Rugby, Baseball all have it's fans and is a much wider and more popular sport then that of wrestling. There are many reasons as too why, the fact that those sports are real were wrestling is now a drama product much like a soap opera. The fact that since the 80's wrestling has never been regarded as a form of sport, instead being overtaken by that of Amateur Wrestling which gets featured in the Olympics and you have such events as the NCAA and other things. The reason why I think wrestling has become almost a hated love passion is the fact that it's not the cool thing anymore. I proudly own a few DVD's and a Beer Money T-Shirt, If I had the money I would get more wrestling memorabilia and DVD's but looking around when you go out or with friends, it's hard to see many people fitting in with wrestling and understanding why people like me like it. But then for me, the less people that like it, the more exclusive the "Club" like feel of wrestling becomes. I have a friend who is massively into Soccer/Football, where as I am not, the role reversal on wrestling is the same. But yet we can sit there and talk about what goes on in each of our sports and we like it. If I was to go to a bar and start talking about wrestling I would be looked upon like a bit of a weird person. I think to be honest wrestling as a whole is something to be enjoyed by the masses, something that everyone can sink there teeth into, but it's really only the small minority that actually understand the aspect of wrestling and understand the entire reasons behind liking it and the actual sport itself.
There are many areas that people will tell you about when it comes to wrestling, you have your straight out huge names that every wrestling fans young or old will be able to tell you, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Andre The Giant, to name just a few. These names revolutionised and made and moulded the business into what it was is and potentially will be today. I sit here wondering what would happen if these people didn't exist, if there was no Hogan in the 80's would WWF (At the time) ever get to the stage that it is it now days. The issue with such stars as Shawn Michaels who in 1998 had to take four years off for back surgery, if he had to call it quits back in 1998 and we never saw the guy again, would the aura of wrestling had changed. If The Undertaker's gimmick never got over, would we still have such things like Kane and Hell In a Cell. Chances are the answer will be No, but it makes you wonder how invaluable certain stars are in creating the future of what we watch.
Other aspects of Wrestling that people like to explain is the "era's" of wrestling that people grew up in or refer too, the 80's was well known for being the "Federation Era" with the emphasis on making wrestling a sport and giving a huge feel to matches that needed it, case in point the Rematch of Wrestlemania III between Hogan and Andre at a Saturday Night's Main Event show drew in thirty three million viewers. Just that one match alone collectively has out sold nearly every single Wrestlemania viewership combined, and that's just staggering to me. So we go through this 1980-1993 era and on the scene pops two companies that change the face and time of wrestling forever, NWA WCW and NWA ECW, by 1994, both companies had dropped the NWA brand and soldiered on as it's own entity. WCW known for being the second company besides WWF, the alternate wrestling business with people like Ric Flair and Sting and Ricky Steamboat. The other company ECW, based in a small arena in Philadelphia in which the essence of hardcore wrestling and the edge to wrestling was born and little did ECW know it, but it would become the backbone of later 1990's.
Once WWF started gathering steam and got a TV deal with the show RAW, everyone looked at WCW too see if they would reply which they did in 1995 with Nitro, and so the war was on. The Monday Night War so to speak was in some people's eyes the hottest time in wrestling history, WHY? Because it made you pick a side, as the days and the weeks grew into months, there was not alot of people who would like both wrestling shows the same, it was generally your either Team WWF or Team WCW. The fans were the reason behind this entire war, whilst the companies where there putting on the shows, it was the fans that were controlling the companies lives because if they didn't watch a show or a big rating dropped in a certain segment, that was the answer the company would need to realise that something wasn't working. The company ECW was starting to get into it's stride and it was using stars like Stone Cold, Benoit, Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero showing what wrestling could be like if there was in a sense a no limit policy. Looking back at ECW by the time it got too 1996, the tide had turned, whilst ECW was making new stars and creating the so called "Attitude Era" It was WCW who were harbouring ECW by taking there talent and basically calling ECW nothing more that a developmental league in which WCW could dip there wick in and get what they wanted because they could, why? because they had a young hearty go getter in the name of Eric Bischoff.
My thoughts on Eric Bischoff do differ from time to time but ultimately the underlying problem remains the same for me, Bischoff did not care about the product, he did not care what went on backstage, he did not care how much money they were making. All Bischoff cared about was taking down the evil company known as WWF. To me whilst there is nothing wrong with trying to out beat your competition, in fact I think it's quite a great idea, The idea that your potentially using the company itself as a weapon for me hurts the entire idea of a Wrestling War. Both sides could have some great matches but unless it’s drawing money then neither Bischoff or Vince would care.
I bring all this history up because of where we are now, 2011 we have a new wave of stars coming up and rising to the next level, John Morrison, Alberto Del Rio, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, to name a few. It shows how the business wants to change but in the minds of certain fans, they still want what they saw ten or fifteen years ago, but chances are that is just not possible anymore. Case in point, Last November they had an Old School Raw, which was based around the 80/90’s of WWE. But LOADS of people were bitching and complaining that it was not there old school Raw that they used to watch as a kid. Here is the thing, ten years does not make something old school. The Raw set during the late 90’s is not old school because we are still coming out of that time in wrestling. Granted the majority has changed but there is still aspects that they use from wrestling to this day, the more emphasis on promos and building characterisation of stars rather then letting them build a character of wrestling. But it did my head in when you get whiny fans complaining that not having the Attitude set meant it didn’t cater to the fans and that Old School Raw was bullshit. Granted people can have there own opinion, but don’t be so anal that because you didn’t get what you want, then everything sucks.
Take Wrestlemania 24. I was thinking we were going to get John Cena Vs Randy Orton in a straight singles match, they were building up from what happened in 2007 and I was looking forward to the match, they were using Cena’s injury as the backbone of the story. The fact that Cena couldn’t wait and wanted to get his hands on Orton, all of these different things and then Triple H gets involved after winning an Elimination Chamber match and it becomes a three way. Now if I was one of those fans, I would be moaning that we didn’t get to see the match that they were building towards and that this is bullshit, bearing in mind this is the same crowd who when Randy Orton beat Rey Mysterio for his Royal Rumble Win, everyone was happy and loved Randy Orton….What’s the difference in two years, Because it’s Hunter who has all this bullshit behind him because he married the boss. I am not saying that Hunter is an all around nice guy who picks daises and can’t do anything wrong. But the guy found love and had good intitive. Granted it makes him look a bit of a kiss ass, but when thinking about it. Your in a job you love and there is only one way for you to really get your foothold in so that you can run the company or do anything to improve, You really want to give your ideas and build your company even further but there is only this one way to do it, chances are 99% of the time, you would do it. I applaud Triple H for taking that move, plus he found his love/wife and that just sweetens the deal.
You hear a lot about politics and how they influence wrestling backstage and on screen, everyone knows about the Triple H 2003-2004 saga where because he held the belt for some nine months and was not being beaten. That means that Hunter is using his backstage power. Here is my question to that, How do you know Hunter is using his power? People will answer such things like interviews and magazine articles and all of this press that proves Hunter was a politician backstage. But look at Magazines, a lot of the time they are bound down by laws and regulations stating they cannot print certain things. Plus the people they talk too could have had a bad relationship with the wrestler so they want to get back at them, it has happened before. The things with interviews is nine times out of ten the company that want to interview you will contact you, not the other way around. Because for example over in the UK we have three man political parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats. Now if a Conservative politician was to give an interview, he would be contacted by a Conservative company, because they share the same views and because of that they can make the conservative’s look like a great political party. If that same politician went and done a Labour interview then both sides would be at logger heads and the Labour side would make it like the conservatives know nothing about anything. So back to wrestling, chances are like I said that Hunter may have used politics to get where he was, but how much or what he done is something we cannot fully understand.
Okay that’s it for now, I will come back and post a lot more on my thoughts in professional wrestling but I would think this would be a good opener so give me your thoughts and I would like to have a discussion about professional wrestling in general.
Thanks Guys
James
So Professional Wrestling, the sport we love to hate and in terms of it's popularity around the world compared to other sports, you hate to love it. Things like Soccer/Football and Rugby, Baseball all have it's fans and is a much wider and more popular sport then that of wrestling. There are many reasons as too why, the fact that those sports are real were wrestling is now a drama product much like a soap opera. The fact that since the 80's wrestling has never been regarded as a form of sport, instead being overtaken by that of Amateur Wrestling which gets featured in the Olympics and you have such events as the NCAA and other things. The reason why I think wrestling has become almost a hated love passion is the fact that it's not the cool thing anymore. I proudly own a few DVD's and a Beer Money T-Shirt, If I had the money I would get more wrestling memorabilia and DVD's but looking around when you go out or with friends, it's hard to see many people fitting in with wrestling and understanding why people like me like it. But then for me, the less people that like it, the more exclusive the "Club" like feel of wrestling becomes. I have a friend who is massively into Soccer/Football, where as I am not, the role reversal on wrestling is the same. But yet we can sit there and talk about what goes on in each of our sports and we like it. If I was to go to a bar and start talking about wrestling I would be looked upon like a bit of a weird person. I think to be honest wrestling as a whole is something to be enjoyed by the masses, something that everyone can sink there teeth into, but it's really only the small minority that actually understand the aspect of wrestling and understand the entire reasons behind liking it and the actual sport itself.
There are many areas that people will tell you about when it comes to wrestling, you have your straight out huge names that every wrestling fans young or old will be able to tell you, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Andre The Giant, to name just a few. These names revolutionised and made and moulded the business into what it was is and potentially will be today. I sit here wondering what would happen if these people didn't exist, if there was no Hogan in the 80's would WWF (At the time) ever get to the stage that it is it now days. The issue with such stars as Shawn Michaels who in 1998 had to take four years off for back surgery, if he had to call it quits back in 1998 and we never saw the guy again, would the aura of wrestling had changed. If The Undertaker's gimmick never got over, would we still have such things like Kane and Hell In a Cell. Chances are the answer will be No, but it makes you wonder how invaluable certain stars are in creating the future of what we watch.
Other aspects of Wrestling that people like to explain is the "era's" of wrestling that people grew up in or refer too, the 80's was well known for being the "Federation Era" with the emphasis on making wrestling a sport and giving a huge feel to matches that needed it, case in point the Rematch of Wrestlemania III between Hogan and Andre at a Saturday Night's Main Event show drew in thirty three million viewers. Just that one match alone collectively has out sold nearly every single Wrestlemania viewership combined, and that's just staggering to me. So we go through this 1980-1993 era and on the scene pops two companies that change the face and time of wrestling forever, NWA WCW and NWA ECW, by 1994, both companies had dropped the NWA brand and soldiered on as it's own entity. WCW known for being the second company besides WWF, the alternate wrestling business with people like Ric Flair and Sting and Ricky Steamboat. The other company ECW, based in a small arena in Philadelphia in which the essence of hardcore wrestling and the edge to wrestling was born and little did ECW know it, but it would become the backbone of later 1990's.
Once WWF started gathering steam and got a TV deal with the show RAW, everyone looked at WCW too see if they would reply which they did in 1995 with Nitro, and so the war was on. The Monday Night War so to speak was in some people's eyes the hottest time in wrestling history, WHY? Because it made you pick a side, as the days and the weeks grew into months, there was not alot of people who would like both wrestling shows the same, it was generally your either Team WWF or Team WCW. The fans were the reason behind this entire war, whilst the companies where there putting on the shows, it was the fans that were controlling the companies lives because if they didn't watch a show or a big rating dropped in a certain segment, that was the answer the company would need to realise that something wasn't working. The company ECW was starting to get into it's stride and it was using stars like Stone Cold, Benoit, Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero showing what wrestling could be like if there was in a sense a no limit policy. Looking back at ECW by the time it got too 1996, the tide had turned, whilst ECW was making new stars and creating the so called "Attitude Era" It was WCW who were harbouring ECW by taking there talent and basically calling ECW nothing more that a developmental league in which WCW could dip there wick in and get what they wanted because they could, why? because they had a young hearty go getter in the name of Eric Bischoff.
My thoughts on Eric Bischoff do differ from time to time but ultimately the underlying problem remains the same for me, Bischoff did not care about the product, he did not care what went on backstage, he did not care how much money they were making. All Bischoff cared about was taking down the evil company known as WWF. To me whilst there is nothing wrong with trying to out beat your competition, in fact I think it's quite a great idea, The idea that your potentially using the company itself as a weapon for me hurts the entire idea of a Wrestling War. Both sides could have some great matches but unless it’s drawing money then neither Bischoff or Vince would care.
I bring all this history up because of where we are now, 2011 we have a new wave of stars coming up and rising to the next level, John Morrison, Alberto Del Rio, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, to name a few. It shows how the business wants to change but in the minds of certain fans, they still want what they saw ten or fifteen years ago, but chances are that is just not possible anymore. Case in point, Last November they had an Old School Raw, which was based around the 80/90’s of WWE. But LOADS of people were bitching and complaining that it was not there old school Raw that they used to watch as a kid. Here is the thing, ten years does not make something old school. The Raw set during the late 90’s is not old school because we are still coming out of that time in wrestling. Granted the majority has changed but there is still aspects that they use from wrestling to this day, the more emphasis on promos and building characterisation of stars rather then letting them build a character of wrestling. But it did my head in when you get whiny fans complaining that not having the Attitude set meant it didn’t cater to the fans and that Old School Raw was bullshit. Granted people can have there own opinion, but don’t be so anal that because you didn’t get what you want, then everything sucks.
Take Wrestlemania 24. I was thinking we were going to get John Cena Vs Randy Orton in a straight singles match, they were building up from what happened in 2007 and I was looking forward to the match, they were using Cena’s injury as the backbone of the story. The fact that Cena couldn’t wait and wanted to get his hands on Orton, all of these different things and then Triple H gets involved after winning an Elimination Chamber match and it becomes a three way. Now if I was one of those fans, I would be moaning that we didn’t get to see the match that they were building towards and that this is bullshit, bearing in mind this is the same crowd who when Randy Orton beat Rey Mysterio for his Royal Rumble Win, everyone was happy and loved Randy Orton….What’s the difference in two years, Because it’s Hunter who has all this bullshit behind him because he married the boss. I am not saying that Hunter is an all around nice guy who picks daises and can’t do anything wrong. But the guy found love and had good intitive. Granted it makes him look a bit of a kiss ass, but when thinking about it. Your in a job you love and there is only one way for you to really get your foothold in so that you can run the company or do anything to improve, You really want to give your ideas and build your company even further but there is only this one way to do it, chances are 99% of the time, you would do it. I applaud Triple H for taking that move, plus he found his love/wife and that just sweetens the deal.
You hear a lot about politics and how they influence wrestling backstage and on screen, everyone knows about the Triple H 2003-2004 saga where because he held the belt for some nine months and was not being beaten. That means that Hunter is using his backstage power. Here is my question to that, How do you know Hunter is using his power? People will answer such things like interviews and magazine articles and all of this press that proves Hunter was a politician backstage. But look at Magazines, a lot of the time they are bound down by laws and regulations stating they cannot print certain things. Plus the people they talk too could have had a bad relationship with the wrestler so they want to get back at them, it has happened before. The things with interviews is nine times out of ten the company that want to interview you will contact you, not the other way around. Because for example over in the UK we have three man political parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats. Now if a Conservative politician was to give an interview, he would be contacted by a Conservative company, because they share the same views and because of that they can make the conservative’s look like a great political party. If that same politician went and done a Labour interview then both sides would be at logger heads and the Labour side would make it like the conservatives know nothing about anything. So back to wrestling, chances are like I said that Hunter may have used politics to get where he was, but how much or what he done is something we cannot fully understand.
Okay that’s it for now, I will come back and post a lot more on my thoughts in professional wrestling but I would think this would be a good opener so give me your thoughts and I would like to have a discussion about professional wrestling in general.
Thanks Guys
James
) I would love to see more interviews like this......gotta respect that man. 