Steroid fuelled soap operas. No denying they have to be quite fit and strong to do it.
Think you’ll find that steroids are absolutely a thing of the past at the top level of the business, and has been for about 14 years (ever since the tragic Chris Benoit incident)
They may not be using once they reach the top, but they certainly seem to use them to get their initial size and leanness
Most wrestlers these days don’t have that massive, bulky look about them that was more prevalent in years gone by.
They all tend to look lean, but there is a greater emphasis on cardio nowadays. Most have that cruiser weight type build. 350 lb muscle heads are not too common.
I'm due a binge to rewatch all the Attitude era PPVs.
I do the same for ECW every few years, they pushed the envelope more and had better mid cards IMO, but WWE had the better stories and big names. For a few years all of it was excellent & reliable entertainment.
Modern wrestling, probably the last 5 to 10 years, is much more like choreographed gymnastics.
Wrestling up until the mid 80s was much more like the simulation of a real fight.
I don't watch any of the current product but I still watch stuff mainly from the 80s and 90s and listen to pod casts about it.
To answer the question the fact that there is real prospect of wrestlers joining the screen actors guild is a give away. I can't imagine busier brody doing that!
I don’t think that’s quite accurate. The standard of wrestling has gone up massively in the past few years. The quality of the product itself isn’t brilliant but the wrestlers are going longer in matches and delivering a lot more in terms of hits than they used to. Just the other day one of the women got her front teeth kicked out because the former MMA fighter kicking her went for it a bit too hard. There’s a lot more wrestlers willing to give each other a proper kicking to make it look good than back in the day. There’s plenty of Bruiser Brody types knocking about happily kicking people in the face and getting dropped on their necks every week
I'm due a binge to rewatch all the Attitude era PPVs.
I do the same for ECW every few years, they pushed the envelope more and had better mid cards IMO, but WWE had the better stories and big names. For a few years all of it was excellent & reliable entertainment.
The ECW one night stand events when the WWE took over the rights but allowed them to be "Extreme" for one night was a great watch, 2006 in particular
I'm due a binge to rewatch all the Attitude era PPVs.
I do the same for ECW every few years, they pushed the envelope more and had better mid cards IMO, but WWE had the better stories and big names. For a few years all of it was excellent & reliable entertainment.
The ECW one night stand events when the WWE took over the rights but allowed them to be "Extreme" for one night was a great watch, 2006 in particular
Obviously not a patch on the original stuff but it harkened back to the good ol' days
It’s really not my thing, but I don’t see anything wrong with it as a spectacle.
Not a sport in my eyes, but certainly an impressive demonstration of athletic ability. I’d say it’s akin to circus performers - (no, not clowns! More like cirque de soleil) - where the audience is amazed and impressed by the incredible ability of the performers. You’d never call that a sport.
Remember the big daddy vs giant haystacks match remember seeing it as a kid think it was about 1980ish and always had this memory of it but rewatched it a couple of years ago good was it poor!! Do watch a bit of indie wrestling locally Progress,rev pro,southside
A mate asked if I wanted to go to a rev Pro show this year. What's it like?
Modern wrestling, probably the last 5 to 10 years, is much more like choreographed gymnastics.
Wrestling up until the mid 80s was much more like the simulation of a real fight.
I don't watch any of the current product but I still watch stuff mainly from the 80s and 90s and listen to pod casts about it.
To answer the question the fact that there is real prospect of wrestlers joining the screen actors guild is a give away. I can't imagine busier brody doing that!
I don’t think that’s quite accurate. The standard of wrestling has gone up massively in the past few years. The quality of the product itself isn’t brilliant but the wrestlers are going longer in matches and delivering a lot more in terms of hits than they used to. Just the other day one of the women got her front teeth kicked out because the former MMA fighter kicking her went for it a bit too hard. There’s a lot more wrestlers willing to give each other a proper kicking to make it look good than back in the day. There’s plenty of Bruiser Brody types knocking about happily kicking people in the face and getting dropped on their necks every week
The "quality" is obviously personal taste but now it's so far away from the stimulation of a proper fight.
Every match seems to have a dive to the outside, once everyone else happens to just be standing in the right place to catch them.
Every match has about 5 false finishes and goes on for about 20 minutes. Every move has been devauled to the extent there are no finishers, of note. A DDT, running power slam, delayed vertical, top rope moves, knocking someone's head off with a chair is a 2 count.
Every TV match is trying to be the main event of starcade or wrestlemania. No one is over, no one has heat, the booking is all over the place. Everyone is small. The special effects are well over the top.
If you like the modern product fair play.
But I'll stick to Flair v Steamboat, Brett Heart, the road warriors, the midnight and rock and roll. Even DX and the NWO. I would rather watch "the best of Al Snow" (that's a joke for the kids) than the current product. For the above reasons.
PS I didn't even mention Orange Cassidy or Joey Ryan!!
The ‘Attitude era’ was great at the time, and loved it as a 12-14 year old. When you watch it back now, it’s quite jaw dropping how politically incorrect a lot of the content was. The modern day WWE product is very bland in comparison.
I’m not suggesting it needs to be offensive to be interesting, but at least have some edge.
NXT in the years 2015 to 2019 was absolutely superb and I’d argue the most exciting period since the early 2000s.
The whole is it fake thing is like adults wondering if there really is an easter bunny. Surely anyone over the age of six can tell real fights don't look like that, especially with MMA being a thing?
Anyway, whatever you want to call it, they perform infront of a live crowd who surround them at all angles and perform all of their own stunts. Quite a few do it 300 days a year.
Steroids have hardly been an issue for nearly 30 years and it's mainly painkillers that resulted in so many deaths in the early 2000s. They're landing in a boxing ring which has minimal padding and mostly being self employed they work whilst injured.
Nothing will ever eclipse The Rock vs Stone Cold at Wrestlemania 17
Without doubt the best wrestlemania and a great main event
Er - excuse me, Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior made the world stop back when I was a nipper. The shockwaves through primary school kids when the Ultimate Warrior won will live long in the memory. It was at the moment that WWF wrestling in the playground was banned I think. Either that or when someone attempted a million dollar dream on someone and they fainted
Nothing will ever eclipse The Rock vs Stone Cold at Wrestlemania 17
Without doubt the best wrestlemania and a great main event
Er - excuse me, Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior made the world stop back when I was a nipper. The shockwaves through primary school kids when the Ultimate Warrior won will live long in the memory. It was at the moment that WWF wrestling in the playground was banned I think. Either that or when someone attempted a million dollar dream on someone and they fainted
Without a doubt wrestlemania 6 had the most iconic main event, but as a whole event, wrestlemania 17 was the best
Nothing will ever eclipse The Rock vs Stone Cold at Wrestlemania 17
Without doubt the best wrestlemania and a great main event
Er - excuse me, Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior made the world stop back when I was a nipper. The shockwaves through primary school kids when the Ultimate Warrior won will live long in the memory. It was at the moment that WWF wrestling in the playground was banned I think. Either that or when someone attempted a million dollar dream on someone and they fainted
The 1992 rumble for me, I had no idea who Flair was or why he thought he was the real world champion I couldn't believe he won. I mean he had to cheat to beat Tito Santana at the Royal Albert Hall a few months before. I still watch it a couple of times a year, mainly for Gorilla and Bobby on the call.
Never really forgiven my parents for not letting me go to that years summerslam!
Modern wrestling, probably the last 5 to 10 years, is much more like choreographed gymnastics.
Wrestling up until the mid 80s was much more like the simulation of a real fight.
I don't watch any of the current product but I still watch stuff mainly from the 80s and 90s and listen to pod casts about it.
To answer the question the fact that there is real prospect of wrestlers joining the screen actors guild is a give away. I can't imagine busier brody doing that!
I don’t think that’s quite accurate. The standard of wrestling has gone up massively in the past few years. The quality of the product itself isn’t brilliant but the wrestlers are going longer in matches and delivering a lot more in terms of hits than they used to. Just the other day one of the women got her front teeth kicked out because the former MMA fighter kicking her went for it a bit too hard. There’s a lot more wrestlers willing to give each other a proper kicking to make it look good than back in the day. There’s plenty of Bruiser Brody types knocking about happily kicking people in the face and getting dropped on their necks every week
The "quality" is obviously personal taste but now it's so far away from the stimulation of a proper fight.
Every match seems to have a dive to the outside, once everyone else happens to just be standing in the right place to catch them.
Every match has about 5 false finishes and goes on for about 20 minutes. Every move has been devauled to the extent there are no finishers, of note. A DDT, running power slam, delayed vertical, top rope moves, knocking someone's head off with a chair is a 2 count.
Every TV match is trying to be the main event of starcade or wrestlemania. No one is over, no one has heat, the booking is all over the place. Everyone is small. The special effects are well over the top.
If you like the modern product fair play.
But I'll stick to Flair v Steamboat, Brett Heart, the road warriors, the midnight and rock and roll. Even DX and the NWO. I would rather watch "the best of Al Snow" (that's a joke for the kids) than the current product. For the above reasons.
PS I didn't even mention Orange Cassidy or Joey Ryan!!
Depends what you watch really. I haven’t watched the main shows in a while because I agree with much of what you’ve said, but I watch NXT for my fix of more fight-like stuff. Balor v O’Reilly went for 30 mins with neither leaving the ring and that ended with a legit broken jaw for Balor. Oney Lorcan or Timothy Thatcher matches are straight up murder fests. Kay Lee Ray and Meiko Satomura kicked the absolute shit out of each other the other day. You’re cherry picking a bit there as well. Wrestling has always been a variety show. You get some great technical matches, you get some stiff matches, you get some gimmick matches, and you get some silly bullshit like The Gobbledy Gooker. The Flair/Steamboat series was great, but then so was Gargano/Ciampa and Okada/Omega. As much as Orange Cassidy is doing his thing - and it's entertaining in its own way - Hillbilly Jim was doing his thing in the 80s.
The creep of the effectiveness of moves is unfortunately an inevitable aspect of wrestling. The DDT was invented in, what, 1970? You can't keep ending matches with it because there comes a point where nobody wants to see it anymore. After a while people demand more, and moves get devalued and replaced by new ones. If you looked back on this era 20 years from now you'd be able to find plenty of matches that fit the kind of profile of the legendary matches of the past. A lot of crap too, but that's true of every era. The good thing about the current product is now everyone is good; you used to get a great main event, you'd get a mid-card match with a big bloke who could barely move but looked the part and you'd get an unwatchable undercard. Now even if the writing for them is bad, at least everyone top to bottom can go, especially in NXT. Wrestling has always been moments of genius amongst piles of jank, I don't think it's that different now
Who collected those Hasbro figures? Got a ton of them in my mum's loft. If anyone's sitting on a Kamala figure with moon belly you'd be on a small fortune.
Remember the big daddy vs giant haystacks match remember seeing it as a kid think it was about 1980ish and always had this memory of it but rewatched it a couple of years ago good was it poor!! Do watch a bit of indie wrestling locally Progress,rev pro,southside
A mate asked if I wanted to go to a rev Pro show this year. What's it like?
Ones at York Hall are awesome 👍rev pro are good shows with some great bookings Well worth going
Modern wrestling, probably the last 5 to 10 years, is much more like choreographed gymnastics.
Wrestling up until the mid 80s was much more like the simulation of a real fight.
I don't watch any of the current product but I still watch stuff mainly from the 80s and 90s and listen to pod casts about it.
To answer the question the fact that there is real prospect of wrestlers joining the screen actors guild is a give away. I can't imagine busier brody doing that!
I don’t think that’s quite accurate. The standard of wrestling has gone up massively in the past few years. The quality of the product itself isn’t brilliant but the wrestlers are going longer in matches and delivering a lot more in terms of hits than they used to. Just the other day one of the women got her front teeth kicked out because the former MMA fighter kicking her went for it a bit too hard. There’s a lot more wrestlers willing to give each other a proper kicking to make it look good than back in the day. There’s plenty of Bruiser Brody types knocking about happily kicking people in the face and getting dropped on their necks every week
The "quality" is obviously personal taste but now it's so far away from the stimulation of a proper fight.
Every match seems to have a dive to the outside, once everyone else happens to just be standing in the right place to catch them.
Every match has about 5 false finishes and goes on for about 20 minutes. Every move has been devauled to the extent there are no finishers, of note. A DDT, running power slam, delayed vertical, top rope moves, knocking someone's head off with a chair is a 2 count.
Every TV match is trying to be the main event of starcade or wrestlemania. No one is over, no one has heat, the booking is all over the place. Everyone is small. The special effects are well over the top.
If you like the modern product fair play.
But I'll stick to Flair v Steamboat, Brett Heart, the road warriors, the midnight and rock and roll. Even DX and the NWO. I would rather watch "the best of Al Snow" (that's a joke for the kids) than the current product. For the above reasons.
PS I didn't even mention Orange Cassidy or Joey Ryan!!
You seem to know a fair bit about what happens in every match for someone who doesn’t watch any of it?
Anyone ever met any of the WWE/WWF/World of Sports wrestlers before.
I met Braun Strowman (Current WWE guy). I was with my mate who about 6ft 3 and a big lad. Braun made him look absolutely tiny. Don’t see many 6ft 10 people but what a scary looking bloke in the flesh.
I know nothing about this sport, since I haven't watched wrestling since it was on main stream TV, with the commentator Kent Walton and a host of British wrestlers who were household names. But I do have an amusing story from that era. A group of the wrestlers used to travel around the country on the same coach. One of them, Jackie Pallo, was not the sharpest tool in the box but claimed to be a good runner. Another wrestler Mick McManus, bet Jackie that he couldn't run 60 seconds in a minute. Jackie accepted the bet, ordered the coach driver to stop and ran off down the road screaming "time me, time me". The other wrestlers just creased up. Jackie got back on the coach some way down the road and was told he'd just missed out. He still didn't get it and insisted upon having another attempt.
Whatever you want to call it, WWF/e from around 1997-2004 was the best television ever made. I can get lost for hours and hours watching promos and old matches etc. UFC are finally making the promos more WWE like and it's working
The music, the characters, the storylines. It really was just brilliant stuff.
I'll never understand why people say 'how can you watch it, it's fake?' weird mindset. I absolutely love the Sopranos, Lost, GoT etc, never once sit there and think 'oh, shall I actually be enjoying this as it's staged?'
That period where we had Stone Cold, Jericho, The Rock, Triple H, Undertaker, Kane, Angle, Mankind etc will never be replicated again. WCW was also great, remember every Friday after primary school having such a buzz to get home and watch it in the evening
Comments
They all tend to look lean, but there is a greater emphasis on cardio nowadays. Most have that cruiser weight type build. 350 lb muscle heads are not too common.
I do the same for ECW every few years, they pushed the envelope more and had better mid cards IMO, but WWE had the better stories and big names. For a few years all of it was excellent & reliable entertainment.
Ee See Dub!!
Ee See Dub!!
Ee See Dub!!
I’d say it’s akin to circus performers - (no, not clowns! More like cirque de soleil) - where the audience is amazed and impressed by the incredible ability of the performers. You’d never call that a sport.
Progress Wrestling in the UK is a fun promotion, been to a few live shows and always enjoy it.
Every match seems to have a dive to the outside, once everyone else happens to just be standing in the right place to catch them.
Every match has about 5 false finishes and goes on for about 20 minutes. Every move has been devauled to the extent there are no finishers, of note. A DDT, running power slam, delayed vertical, top rope moves, knocking someone's head off with a chair is a 2 count.
Every TV match is trying to be the main event of starcade or wrestlemania. No one is over, no one has heat, the booking is all over the place. Everyone is small. The special effects are well over the top.
If you like the modern product fair play.
But I'll stick to Flair v Steamboat, Brett Heart, the road warriors, the midnight and rock and roll. Even DX and the NWO. I would rather watch "the best of Al Snow" (that's a joke for the kids) than the current product. For the above reasons.
PS I didn't even mention Orange Cassidy or Joey Ryan!!
I’m not suggesting it needs to be offensive to be interesting, but at least have some edge.
Anyway, whatever you want to call it, they perform infront of a live crowd who surround them at all angles and perform all of their own stunts. Quite a few do it 300 days a year.
Steroids have hardly been an issue for nearly 30 years and it's mainly painkillers that resulted in so many deaths in the early 2000s. They're landing in a boxing ring which has minimal padding and mostly being self employed they work whilst injured.
I'm truly in my element 😀
Never really forgiven my parents for not letting me go to that years summerslam!
Well worth going
But I do have an amusing story from that era.
A group of the wrestlers used to travel around the country on the same coach. One of them, Jackie Pallo, was not the sharpest tool in the box but claimed to be a good runner. Another wrestler Mick McManus, bet Jackie that he couldn't run 60 seconds in a minute. Jackie accepted the bet, ordered the coach driver to stop and ran off down the road screaming "time me, time me". The other wrestlers just creased up. Jackie got back on the coach some way down the road and was told he'd just missed out. He still didn't get it and insisted upon having another attempt.
The music, the characters, the storylines. It really was just brilliant stuff.
I'll never understand why people say 'how can you watch it, it's fake?' weird mindset. I absolutely love the Sopranos, Lost, GoT etc, never once sit there and think 'oh, shall I actually be enjoying this as it's staged?'
That period where we had Stone Cold, Jericho, The Rock, Triple H, Undertaker, Kane, Angle, Mankind etc will never be replicated again. WCW was also great, remember every Friday after primary school having such a buzz to get home and watch it in the evening