The Wrestling Thread

Are there any other Pro-Wrestling fans on the boards?
I thought it would be cool maybe to have a thread to talk WWE/TNA/ROH etc.....

Apologies if this has been done/ attempted before , I did do a search but couldn't find anything.

Not into softcore gay porn rebranded as redneck soap operas, thanks. Hope you find some fellow fans, though!

I've enjoyed pro wrestling my entire life, but I stopped regularly following pro wrestling around the time Cena and Umaga were feuding in 2006. I've always liked Cena, but I didn't like the way management kept forcing him down everyone's throats, and the fact that the completely uninteresting Umaga (who just might have the worst finisher of all time) was being given a massive push. Already tired of waiting to see if Cena would turn heel, I haven't watched a full episode of RAW or Smackdown ever since. In retrospect, I think I made the right decision.

However, over the past few months I have been watching a few matches online here and there. Most of what I know about what's currently going on in pro wrestling is through Whatculture's Youtube wrestling channel. The overall quality of their top 10 lists has rejuvenated a lot of my long lost interest in wrestling.

A couple days ago I looked into several fan favourite matches with Bray Wyatt. I'm surprised he's never been United States or Intercontinental champion. He's quite fast for a man his size and his character is genuinely very believable and entertaining.

I've also seen some great stuff from Daniel Bryan and CM Punk fairly recently.

I like both Lesnar and Goldberg a lot, and putting Goldberg over was probably the right move, but the way their recent match was handled was a terrible idea. I think down the road people are going to really hate that match, even if they don't right now.

Roman Reigns seems pretty mediocre from what little I've seen.

Same here, I've been a wrestling fan my whole life.
I've been very jaded with the current WWE product pretty much since CM Punk walked out in 2014 , that man was a breath of fresh air.
Though I do carry hope that HHH has a clear vision for the future, I think he has shown this with NXT and the upcoming UK championship tournament innovations.

I agree with you on Bray Wyatt , his charisma is off the scale and he's very over with the crowd (have you seen that entrance?)

I always watch when Undertaker or Kane is on though- my two favourite wrestlers of all time.

Roman is very very generic that's the biggest problem with him. hes not terrible but he's nothing too special to watch either.

Goldberg and Lesnar was awful. Some people loved it and some hated it.
Not my cup of tea at all.
Though its been great seeing Goldberg back in the mix , I enjoyed his stuff back in WCW.

Haha. Also stopped watching years ago, also got interested again thanks to Whatculture. Still not watching episodes but sorta keeping up with the news on YouTube. I'm pretty interested in behind the scenes stuff though. Politics, management, real life feuds, personalities, injuries, drug abuse, wrestler histories, etc. and of course how the whole machine (business) works, on the mat and off it.

Wrestling is a pretty unique phenomenon and tells us a lot of the human psyche and the extent to which the human body can take punishment. Even issues such as feminism are relevant, for example I see a lot of people who are against mixed gendered wrestling, especially if the woman is slapped around a bit, but logically, feminism entails that since women are to be treated equally, they should also take part in mixed wrestling matches, and men shouldn't hold back because of the mere fact that they are women. Wrestlers like Chyna (also plenty in Japan) have proven that it is possible. Only third-wave feminists who think that women should be handled with kid gloves should cringe at the idea.

The Undertaker is my definitive favourite wrestler. Hard to imagine anybody alive pulling off the persona anywhere near as good as Mark Calaway.

Ajora said:

The Undertaker is my definitive favourite wrestler. Hard to imagine anybody alive pulling off the persona anywhere near as good as Mark Calaway.

NOBODY could have been given that gimmick and carry it the same way that Mark has done it.
incredible.

And to think he came really close to being The Gobbledy Gooker.

Wrestling's fake! Its people in costumes bashing each other lol

_{Well, I never enjoyed watching it because it's boring. Like porn *brings out riot shield*. But I'm not exactly your typical guy. Everyone around me seems very interested in football, while im more interested in computers. It fascinates me. That, and wrestling is way too corny if you ask me. I'm sure im not the only one here, so I'll leave. By the time you were reading this, your eyesight will have decreased.}

Ajora said:

And to think he came really close to being The Gobbledy Gooker.

That happened the same night Taker debut at the 1990 Survivor Series.
Can you imagine if he'd ended up with that?
The gobbledy Gooker was a foreshadowing of things to come with the likes of Doink and the Gooner showing up a little while after

Voros said:

Wrestling's fake! Its people in costumes bashing each other lol

Guess what Doom's also fake.

While wrestling may be staged, the rigorous exercise plan and intensive training takes serious dedication, that's not to mention learning to properly take the impact of all those hits and falls. It's not my thing, when it comes to sporty stuff all I really like is Rugby League and UFC, but pro wrestling is still intense and I can see why it has appeal for a lot of people.

I stopped trying to defend the real/fake argument years ago.
The people who get it get it , and the people who don't likely never will.

I love Wrestling, my favorite WWE fight was that Monday Night RAW on 22 of December from 2014, that fight was damn hilarious, Big Show got owned by Roman Reigns, it makes me laugh every time i see, Big Show had the upper hand and then boom, Roman turns the tables and it's game over.
And also that moment where Brock Lesnar lifted Big Show and destroyed the ring, that was crazy.

J.B.R said:

I love Wrestling, my favorite WWE fight was that Monday Night RAW on 22 of December from 2014, that fight was damn hilarious, Big Show got owned by Roman Reigns, it makes me laugh every time i see, Big Show had the upper hand and then boom, Roman turns the tables and it's game over.
And also that moment where Brock Lesnar lifted Big Show and destroyed the ring, that was crazy.

That original ring break was classic!
On a side note your avatar could give someone anxiety ;)

Huge wrestling fan here.
Been watching WWE since 2004. I stopped watching for a few years (2009-2015) but then got back into it after watching some old New Japan and NWA matches by the great Muta.
I love the new tallent being brought to WWE right now, people like Baron Corbin and Sami Zayn are really rekindling my love for wrestling.

Also NXT: TakeOver Dallas reminds me why Iove Pro-wrestling

Glad to see their are few on the boards who like it
Anyone have any Royal Rumble predictions?
I'm betting/hoping on a Finn Balor surprise return.

I was a regular watcher from 2004-2011. I drew the line when they were doing guest hosts for RAW every week and brought Jerry Springer out for some ridiculously stupid sketch styled after his show. I don't think I could bring myself to watch three hours of RAW each week plus Smackdown! the next night nowadays, but I still definitely have a soft spot for the older stuff from the 90s. I've actually been really tempted to subscribe to the WWE Network just to get access to all the old PPVs and episodes of RAW and Nitro from the 90s. I also still enjoy all my old WWF/WCW video games as well, the series of pro wrestling games made by AKI for the N64 being my favorites.

I also recommend the Botchamania series, even to people not interested in wrestling. It's probably the only current thing I follow in the sport.

I used to watch wrestling during the Monday night wars between WCW and WWF. Initially, I was a WCW guy, but then I started to watch WWF more. I also used to watch the original ECW. We all knew it was fake, but we liked watching it anyway. It was big while I was in middle school, but I started to lose interest in the during of high school. By then wrestling was going into its PG transition, when WWE became a publicly traded company.

The THQ games were the best wrestling games imo. I bought an N64 primarily to play Wrestlemania 2000.

bedbug182 said:

Glad to see their are few on the boards who like it
Anyone have any Royal Rumble predictions?
I'm betting/hoping on a Finn Balor surprise return.

My prediction - Cena beats Styles for the title then Undertaker draws 30 and wins the rumble to setup Cena v Taker at WM33.

I watched WWF from around WM6 to WM9 and stopped watching because of Hogan winning the belt under circumstances too contrived to swallow.

I started again 3 years ago when my son got into it and have followed it with some interest for the last year or two.

I also quite like ROH and LU but theres just not time for it all so i rarely watch. From what I read the sports style format of NJPW would appeal to me most but I don't think I'd get past the translation issue.

purist said:

I also quite like ROH and LU but theres just not time for it all so i rarely watch. From what I read the sports style format of NJPW would appeal to me most but I don't think I'd get past the translation issue.

NJPW has taken more of an effort to attract Anglosphere (US/UK/CAN/AUS) viewers including having English commentary for their major shows and just very recently adding full English support for their website as well as their streaming service, NJPW World. There's also a TV show if you're American and have AXStv where they show high profile matches from the last couple years or so.

As far as storylines go, there's not really much that gets lost in translation, like 99% of New Japan storylines are some variation on "You're pretty good but I think I'm better than you, let's wrestle."

Supposedly the guy who runs NJPW wants to eventually have a full fledged war with WWE (which I honestly don't think they'll win, but God bless them for trying).

I'd check it out but I already pay a sub to the WWE Network so not for the time being. The crossover stuff with ROH looks cool and like that they have regular tournaments.

By the way, for an awesome wrestling game check out Fire Pro Wrestling Returns on PS2 or emulator and equip with a load of CAWs from FPRArena

purist said:

My prediction - Cena beats Styles for the title then Undertaker draws 30 and wins the rumble to setup Cena v Taker at WM33.

I watched WWF from around WM6 to WM9 and stopped watching because of Hogan winning the belt under circumstances too contrived to swallow.

I started again 3 years ago when my son got into it and have followed it with some interest for the last year or two.

I also quite like ROH and LU but theres just not time for it all so i rarely watch. From what I read the sports style format of NJPW would appeal to me most but I don't think I'd get past the translation issue.

Take wins the Rumble?? I'd buy that for a dollar.

As for the video games I've played one of the major yearly releases every year since WWF Warzone in 1998. But the last couple of years have just become tiresome and repetitive especially WWE2K15-2K17.
They've lost their fun factor.

Generally, I lost my interest. Almost. Sometimes I still watching some interesting PPVs, but very few.

What dethtoll said.

Grew up watching it and stopped doing so when Cena became the next Hulk Hogan. I got back into about two years ago, but I'm more or less sticking to Strong Style wrestling. Guy's like Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama and Genichiro Tenryu are my favorite wrestlers these days. Though I did start watching WWE again when CM Punk was around and I do like Kevin Owens.

I will say that my biggest gripe with WWE is how they treated a lot of the WCW talent. DDP, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko should have had way better runs in WWE.

This. Just this.

I remember when Iron Shiek got a boner when fighting hulk hogan, but thats about as much as I know when it comes to WWE.

NeedHealth said:

This. Just this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3DXAlKw-Bs

there's an old saying in wrestling how someone is "So good he can have a decent match with a mop". This is basically that. huge props if you can put on a show with a blow up doll.

Unfortunately , there are a very few that are being heavily showcased on WWE TV that could have a match with a mop.
AJ Styles is great though , along with Rollins.