Classic Wrestling Discussion: Part III & Wrestler Poll

[Transplanted Caper]

I've heard Chris Jericho talk about how Vince wanted him and Christian running around buck ass naked all the way down to the arena after getting their clothes stolen because he thought it was funny. Jericho shoots it down and Vince is all "Well dammit we gotta do SOMETHING!!" as if these poor blokes being naked is the only possible option.Vince is freaking sick.

Them being in towels was a much needed compromise that was genuinely entertaining. I didn't hate it. Jericho is a genius

They were in towels and flesh coloured underwear. Jericho didn't want to do the nudity thing regardless, but that he had to go ten rounds with Vince explaining they LITERALLY couldn't show their genitals on TV or in front of a live audience without huge repercussions was incredible. Vince is insane. He just gets an idea in his head and loses all perspective or sanity. Same dude loses his mind on a different day over someone dropping mild cussing into a promo.

 

[These Are The Days]

They were in towels and flesh coloured underwear. Jericho didn't want to do the nudity thing regardless, but that he had to go ten rounds with Vince explaining they LITERALLY couldn't show their genitals on TV or in front of a live audience without huge repercussions was incredible. Vince is insane. He just gets an idea in his head and loses all perspective or sanity. Same dude loses his mind on a different day over someone dropping mild cussing into a promo.

"I'm going to have my cock out in front of kids. You're gonna get me sued for indecent exposure" "WELL DAMN IT WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THEN??!?"

I went blank and glitched after hearing that. Thank God he was able to save the idea. It was genuinely funny under his direction and about as tastefully executed as the situation allowed. Poor Christian was terrified he'd lose his push of he didn't do it.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Dustin Rhodes had a deleted tweet about how Hogan was an asshole for refusing to work with him at WM 9 because he had skinny arms.

Which I'm not sure actually makes sense as Dustin left WWF with Dusty in 91 and would remain in WCW until I think 95 when he came back as Golddust.

Also yeah Hogan is a POS, but I'm not sure how Dustin thinks he was a Mania worthy opponent for Hogan in 93...or actually in any year if we are being honest.

 

[Transplanted Caper]

Easy enough to confuse a Mania number, I suppose, but hard to think of a time when Hogan v. Dustin would have ever been seriously considered.

 

[These Are The Days]

No one. Not ever. Not even once.


John Cena: disses the 11-3 Buccaneers. With one of the greatest defenses in recorded history at the time I might add


Man if I had known Smackdown was gonna be in Tampa in December 2002 I'd have tried to go. Young me would have had the time of his life. It's also occurring to me this is Brock's first proper match since Survivor Series. Holy crap. I wonder if he got hurt or something. It's been a month


I'm not done with the episode yet but I *think* Team Angle is gonna form tonight. If that's the case I'm gonna mark the F out

 

[These Are The Days]

*sigh*

Kurt is so magnificent with that WWE championship. My Olympic Hero is champion again and is the biggest lying slimebag you'll ever see. Borderline sociopath at best.

All is right with the world.

 

[Transplanted Caper]

Cold and rainy here, and cleaning the condo. Hate watching Survivor Series 1994 in the background. Holy hell is it bad. They counted out 5 men at once after Diesel turned on Shawn. And I get the "rules" of a professional wrestling match are...fluid...but jesus!

And Vince absolutely selling the little people wrestlers like it's Savage/Steamboat.

 

[Transplanted Caper]

Owen in tears begging his Mom to throw in the towel. Monsoon and McMahon selling the hell out of it being a face turn. Just glorious work by Owen.

 

[These Are The Days]

A few thoughts

I never understood how Big Show was perfectly fine with getting screwed out of the title by Angle and Heyman. Somehow "But Brock isn't champion AND you get a rematch" is apparently good enough

It's just before Christmas 2002 and Raw is in Oklahoma City. Time for JR to get trashed again in front of his home town. Jesus Christ alive this is getting as boring as it is predictable. I'm not watching this. Maybe there's some precious memorable Ruthless Aggression memory to be had and I can't be bothered to give a shit. I already know at some point Kane is gonna set him on fire. And the heel turn after he came back from Bell's palsy was bad enough

I'll say it again. Hurricane going to Raw was the worst possible move. I also know at some point he and Rosey (his Super Hero In Training) become a thing but that's in God only knows how long. My man is wasting away

Thank God Booker and Goldy are tag champs for now. I still gotta see if they hold onto them

Why in God's name was Mark Jindrak ever considered for Evolution over Batista given how often Flair is with Batista right now?

Desperately waiting for Al Wilson to die. This angle is HORRIBLE

Hey look! Test got his first pop in the year 2002. You get em big money

I take back about 75% of my prayers for Paul Levasque. I suddenly remember the year 2000. Wrestling Scott Steiner is the least you can do to atone for the first 8-10 months of the year 2000. DX 2000/McMahon-Helmsley Era deserves to burn


Edit: Thank God for Victoria. The psycho gimmick is singlehandedly saving my interest in the women's title picture. King has ruined Trish for me forever with countless matches of OMGPUPPIES!! and it's a damn shame because I think she has improved more than any talent WWF/WWE has produced since 1997. Only Brock really comes close but even then I think they just helped him with his matches a bit more

 

[Grackle Party]

A few thoughts

I never understood how Big Show was perfectly fine with getting screwed out of the title by Angle and Heyman. Somehow "But Brock isn't champion AND you get a rematch" is apparently good enough

It's just before Christmas 2002 and Raw is in Oklahoma City. Time for JR to get trashed again in front of his home town. Jesus Christ alive this is getting as boring as it is predictable. I'm not watching this. Maybe there's some precious memorable Ruthless Aggression memory to be had and I can't be bothered to give a shit. I already know at some point Kane is gonna set him on fire. And the heel turn after he came back from Bell's palsy was bad enough

I'll say it again. Hurricane going to Raw was the worst possible move. I also know at some point he and Rosey (his Super Hero In Training) become a thing but that's in God only knows how long. My man is wasting away

Thank God Booker and Goldy are tag champs for now. I still gotta see if they hold onto them

Why in God's name was Mark Jindrak ever considered for Evolution over Batista given how often Flair is with Batista right now?

Desperately waiting for Al Wilson to die. This angle is HORRIBLE

Hey look! Test got his first pop in the year 2002. You get em big money

I take back about 75% of my prayers for Paul Levasque. I suddenly remember the year 2000. Wrestling Scott Steiner is the least you can do to atone for the first 8-10 months of the year 2000. DX 2000/McMahon-Helmsley Era deserves to burn


Edit: Thank God for Victoria. The psycho gimmick is singlehandedly saving my interest in the women's title picture. King has ruined Trish for me forever with countless matches of OMGPUPPIES!! and it's a damn shame because I think she has improved more than any talent WWF/WWE has produced since 1997. Only Brock really comes close but even then I think they just helped him with his matches a bit more

Oh god... This was so bad and doesnt get shit on enough.

 

[Transplanted Caper]

Those Road Wild PPVs were BAD. 1998, A NINE-man Battle Royal between NWO Hollywood, NWO Wolfpac and...Goldberg. The "full match" is billed at ~18 minutes - 9:22 of which are entrances and random mic work. They claim Goldberg...who is a real person with a real football career the company acknowledged as being "from parts unknown". Whenever there are an odd number of people in the ring, Goldberg just stands and watches everyone. Pinfalls and submissions are allowed for some reason. 9 minutes of punches and rest holds and the thing is won with a pinfall. Oh, WCW.

 

[These Are The Days]

Edit: basically posted "When the hell is Brock gonna wrestle again. itsbeen84years.meme" and pointed out he's had a single 30 squash match since losing the title mid-November at Survivor Series and openly speculated the dude was hurt or dealing with drug use. Now on the New Year's episode of Smackdown 2003 it's all "Brock Lesnar returns"

Thank God. I'm ready to watch some heels get murdered and Kurt Angle to screw people left and right with his brand new team

 

[Megahab]

Edit: basically posted "When the hell is Brock gonna wrestle again. itsbeen84years.meme" and pointed out he's had a single 30 squash match since losing the title mid-November at Survivor Series and openly speculated the dude was hurt or dealing with drug use. Now on the New Year's episode of Smackdown 2003 it's all "Brock Lesnar returns"

Thank God. I'm ready to watch some heels get murdered and Kurt Angle to screw people left and right with his brand new team

IIRC, he dropped the belt at Survivor Series because of a rib injury.

 

[These Are The Days]

IIRC, he dropped the belt at Survivor Series because of a rib injury.

It's gotta be. It's the only thing that makes sense. We've had suspensions, we've had cooling off periods, we've had "You can't wrestle tonight because of your ribs" and Brock just flat out doing nothing on a given night except coming out to raise hell for 5 minutes. I'm not trying to complain but I think you are right about the injury. Because right now he's feuding with 3 guys who screwed him in Big Show, Paul Heyman, Kurt Angle and now 2 well trained, All American lackeys. You can't engineer a bigger fan favorite than that. Metaphorically speaking he'll never be a bigger favorite than he is right now and been gone for like 2 months


But I will say losing the WWE title at Survivor Series 2002 and it going to Angle was the single best thing to happen in 2003. It's crazy how we didn't even have to wait for the 2003 calendar year to begin. They made that feud go a year and God was it one for the ages

 

[These Are The Days]

Getting closer to Royal Rumble 2003. Just 2 thoughts for now. Both about Smackdown.

1. My Olympic Hero transcends time, space and wrestling. That punk Lesnar doesn't stand a chance! Team Angle will live forever baby!

2. Bill DeMott is talented but he's not doing anything for me. Feels like having another A-Train. Smackdown is a bit too heavy on big dudes who are athletic

 

[CDJ]

Tajiri and Eddie didn’t tag for nearly as long as I remember

 

[CDJ]

Zach Gowen did a hell of a job for a 20 YO back in 2003

 

[These Are The Days]

I'm about to get to Royal Rumble 2003


All I have to say is Kurt Angle is the single most courageous champion in history. Look at him fighting on a clearly bad leg. Team Angle is not dirty, they are reliant on strategy, opportunity and athleticism. My hero only tapped to the crossface after the bell rang and wasn't the legal man anyway.

He was assaulted three times. He shouldn't even have to defend his title at the rumble now

 

[CDJ]

Vengeance 2003 is a trip

 

[These Are The Days]

I'm finally, FINALLY able to watch the 2003 Royal Rumble. We're 7 minutes in and Steiner is ready to pass out because he doesn't have enough stamina. The memes write themselves with this guy. At this point he's resorting to like 922 suplexes in a row and badly botched an underhook power bomb. HHH probably didn't have it timed either.

Jesus Christ his g string is showing after the match too.

Vince must have had a stroke after this

 

[These Are The Days]

Just finished the 2003 Rumble. Far, far, far better than 2002 where everyone just got taken out by either Taker, Austin or HHH. I absolutely hate it when you get to like #20 and there's like 3 guys in the ring for whatever reason or everyone's just gone in 30 seconds being fed to a monster. Then you gotta listen to the dude who drew #26 run and eliminated a handful of guys his mouth about "i OuTlAsTeD 29 gUyS!!!" when some other guy at like #8 eliminated 8 people and was gone before you got there. I'm not saying there needs to be like 18 guys at #30 just please, at least give me a chance to suspend my disbelief that the main event talent who was never NOT going to win it, and is SO automatically good at everything that he even draws the luckiest numbers of the night; had to actually earn his Rumble win.

TL;DR: If the winner emerges from a pile of humanity by the last drawing you at least make the victory credible

 

[These Are The Days]

Annnddd the next night on Raw we got Chief Morley asking the Dudleys to forefit their titles. Jesus Christ. Smackdown is just running laps around this programming

 

[These Are The Days]

Trust the process.

I did and thank goodness. You were right. Orton, Batista, Flair and HHH just beat Steiner to a bloody, helpless pulp. I have to assume that Evolution is going to be an official and recognized stable within the month of programming.

This is already better in like 9 minutes than like 9 months of DX/McMahon/Helmsley in 2000

 

[alko]

I'm finally, FINALLY able to watch the 2003 Royal Rumble. We're 7 minutes in and Steiner is ready to pass out because he doesn't have enough stamina. The memes write themselves with this guy. At this point he's resorting to like 922 suplexes in a row and badly botched an underhook power bomb. HHH probably didn't have it timed either.

Jesus Christ his g string is showing after the match too.

Vince must have had a stroke after this

It is in the 50 worst matches ever ranking.

 

[These Are The Days]

It is in the 50 worst matches ever ranking.

I'm not surprised. HHH and Steiner would have done the whole world a favor cutting that match 10 minutes and HHH just getting himself disqualified sooner. Because the only problem with the Angle/Benoit match that followed was that it didn't have enough time to be the 5 star match it should have been. It's ending was 5 stars for sure

One match is an all time collision of all time technical wrestling greats and the other has Scott's own bulk wearing him out