Unpopular Wrestling Opinions

Allie Kitsune

...and the Brawla Brawla Sewitt
Jan 7, 2006
9,948
2,324
Pennsylvania
I want to like AEW as the plucky, young upstart.

But they just keep coming off as frat boy, *****ie.

They remind me of an indy band that keeps bragging about how they're better than what's playing mainstream, and then you go see them perform, and it feels so underwhelming.

They're trying to lean into this new "geek" era of wrestling (that Kenny and The Bucks themselves mostly ushered in), but it seems like they're not quite all the way there because of the deal with Turner/Warner.

While they are doing some things to push the business into something "kindler and gentler", and playing on geek sensibilities with stuff like Fyter Fest and the Sensory Inclusiveness Accomodation stuff they've done, it feels like there have been missed opportunities to make mission statements to show just how different from Vinceworld they are.
 

Emperoreddy

Show Me What You Got!
Apr 13, 2010
129,839
75,228
New Jersey, Exit 16E
It does remind me how out of touch Vince is with what young people like in today’s world.

He still thinks what worked in the 90s will work now. Hell with all that “Ricochet is like spider-man” stuff he thinks what worked in the 80s will work today.
 

Shoalzie

Trust me!
May 16, 2003
16,904
180
Portland, MI
Kenny Omega is overrated.


I'm not mad at that statement. Now that we've gotten a few matches in AEW...he's probably not going to have the epics he had with Okada in Japan. To me, he's still a top worker in the industry but his best stuff was in Japan. I'm still a big fan of his but I'll say this...Jay White is a much better leader of Bullet Club.

I honestly couldn't tell you who I think is the "best in the world" now. We all have different guys/gals that we enjoy...different styles that appeal to us. I think certain people are booked with the right opponent and they have a great match collectively. With most of the recent 5 or 6 star level matches...how many of those were carried by only one of the participants? The recent matches are great is because both people put in the work.

A guy like Ishii probably isn't the best pure wrestler in the world but he can always have amazing matches with most of the roster in Japan. My favorite guys are probably still in Japan...Naito, Ibushi, Okada, Ishii, Ospreay.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Big Poppa Puck

Shoalzie

Trust me!
May 16, 2003
16,904
180
Portland, MI
They're trying to lean into this new "geek" era of wrestling (that Kenny and The Bucks themselves mostly ushered in), but it seems like they're not quite all the way there because of the deal with Turner/Warner.


I'm kinda surprised how many "nerd wrestlers" there are. Lots of video game/comic book/superhero culture in the industry. So much of costuming is pop culture influenced. You can say AEW is more friendly to "counter-culture" but guys like Gargano or Ospreay or the New Day are in that realm as well.
 

Allie Kitsune

...and the Brawla Brawla Sewitt
Jan 7, 2006
9,948
2,324
Pennsylvania
I'm kinda surprised how many "nerd wrestlers" there are. Lots of video game/comic book/superhero culture in the industry. So much of costuming is pop culture influenced. You can say AEW is more friendly to "counter-culture" but guys like Gargano or Ospreay or the New Day are in that realm as well.

I've gotta be honest. And it might get me into some trouble. I'm not really a big fan of the "nerd wrestler" thing. It feels like that last bit of separation between the talent and the crowd has broken and we've just got a bunch of people who want to do moves while cosplaying.

And the mean, short-tempered, hard-as-nails brawler is considered a relic of a past that is no longer fit for today's society.
 

PeterSidorkiewicz

HFWF Tourney Undisputed Champion
Apr 30, 2004
32,442
9,701
Lansing, MI
I've gotta be honest. And it might get me into some trouble. I'm not really a big fan of the "nerd wrestler" thing. It feels like that last bit of separation between the talent and the crowd has broken and we've just got a bunch of people who want to do moves while cosplaying.

And the mean, short-tempered, hard-as-nails brawler is considered a relic of a past that is no longer fit for today's society.

I mean doesn’t Moxley fit your description of the past relics you describe?

I would put Baron Corbin in the brawler category too.
 

boredmale

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Jul 13, 2005
42,363
6,930
All you have to do is tune in and watch a show to see how different from Vinceworld they are.

They actually have a logical show.

One leep of logic that I hate about modern wrestling is when a guy jumps over the top rope to the floor, why does the person(s) on the floor catch him, you think they would move out of the way and let them fall on the floor. lol

To many moves in modern wrestling have that problem as well(ie why does the guy catch them instead of doing the logical thing and move out of the way)
 

MVP of West Hollywd

Registered User
Oct 28, 2008
3,491
951
People way overstate Vince's impact on preventing guys from being stars, with 5 hours a week of Raw/Smackdown for the most part everyone gets their shot to prove themselves, and you don't always need a title to do that. The WWE is begging at all times for people who are over and who can carry storylines, and if you can do that they'll push you. Vince is constantly reaching on pushes for wrestlers just to hope it sticks. Half the time when he's not pushing someone with a world title or mid card belt it's because he's protecting them from flying too close to the sun. The easiest way for your career to end is to be a mid carder who is hotshotted an IC or US title, have it be a terrible reign that ends after a month, and then what? You already proved you're not champion material in any form. You're done.

Take someone like Sami Zayn. You can say he never got his title run. But I would argue the WWE gave Sami possibly something more valuable, feud opportunities. He had PPV matches with random mid carders like Braun, Joe, Corbin, Lashley, etc. He got to go out there and give a way too long promo to Lashley, he got to have a segment with Foley to put him over. Him and Corbin were two guys that always had an undercard feud going for a year or two. This was really his shot to prove himself and the feuds weren't good and some of them were dropped before completion which is always a bad sign. IIRC he had a DQ finish at a PPV with Corbin, but the feud never ended afterwards, it just fizzled out on Raw and Corbin feuded face Nak instead. That's what you don't want to happen. The difference between Reigns and Zayn is that when they put Reigns with guys like Braun, Lashley, McIntyre, etc. it actually connects as a storyline. They put Reigns with a complete scrub in Jinder and at least it was a PPV match and some semblance of a storyline. You put 90% of the faces in a storyline against post title reign Jinder and it goes out to ice cold crickets on Raw and then forgotten about, and IIRC they may have done that with Sami himself once. I'm intrigued by Lacey Evans right now because after being buried for months after her Becky storyline, she got put in a mediocre program with Natalya and they somehow pulled off turning into a multiple week thing, PPV match and Last Woman Standing match. This is the type of thing that stars do, they take the filler feuds they're given with someone who's an afterthought and make something important out of it.

Or someone like Samoa Joe. I would argue the WWE has done everything they can to make Samoa Joe a main eventer, since on the surface a lot of the tools are there to be someone Vince loves. Just because they never gave him the belt doesn't mean they haven't tried. They gave him the big Brock match, extended feud with Reigns, extended title feud with AJ, and then finally gave him a belt in the the US title and his reign sucked. They put him back in the world title picture with Kofi and it was Kofi's most forgettable storyline of his reign (although the match was good). The only reason Joe is cold is for whatever reason all that size, athleticism, skill and promo ability doesn't add up as much as you would think. He was feuding against a guy like AJ who was champion for a year and begging to lose it, if Samoa Joe was red hot they would've given him the title, but all he had was a tired threatening family storyline to draw heat and it wasn't worth it.
 
Last edited:

Emperoreddy

Show Me What You Got!
Apr 13, 2010
129,839
75,228
New Jersey, Exit 16E
I'm kinda surprised how many "nerd wrestlers" there are. Lots of video game/comic book/superhero culture in the industry. So much of costuming is pop culture influenced. You can say AEW is more friendly to "counter-culture" but guys like Gargano or Ospreay or the New Day are in that realm as well.

I am more surprised that there are so few in WWE.

They do so bad in the younger demos, you would think they would be really open to it. Instead it’s really just New Day and they keep a lot of their gamer stuff separate outside a few minor references.

Though this is the same company that thinks people in 2019 want to watch two cheating storylines. And they wonder why they only do well with really old folks in the ratings.
 

Emperoreddy

Show Me What You Got!
Apr 13, 2010
129,839
75,228
New Jersey, Exit 16E
Joe was very over in his short feud with Brock. Problem is he was never planned to feud with him for long and was shuffled aside very quickly.

Joe hasn’t been used as well as they could. Though one of his problems is he can’t stay healthy.
 

boredmale

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Jul 13, 2005
42,363
6,930
People way overstate Vince's impact on preventing guys from being stars, with 5 hours a week of Raw/Smackdown for the most part everyone gets their shot to prove themselves, and you don't always need a title to do that. The WWE is begging at all times for people who are over and who can carry storylines, and if you can do that they'll push you.

To me the main fault in wrestling today and I see AEW already screwing this up as well is that you have 50-50 booking, which basically means you see guys win half their matches and lose the other half.

With the proper booking and a talented wrestler it's not hard to get somebody over if you give it the proper amount of time. It's a basic case you just need to have a guy not lose on TV for like 6 months to a year.

The Wwe needs to look how Triple H got over. The WWe basically kept shoving him down people's throats until they accepted he was a main event star(If it was any other WWe star they probably would have given up in months when it just wasn't working right)
 

JackSlater

Registered User
Apr 27, 2010
18,042
12,664
I've gotta be honest. And it might get me into some trouble. I'm not really a big fan of the "nerd wrestler" thing. It feels like that last bit of separation between the talent and the crowd has broken and we've just got a bunch of people who want to do moves while cosplaying.

And the mean, short-tempered, hard-as-nails brawler is considered a relic of a past that is no longer fit for today's society.

I think that I posted about it already, but I hate the cosplaying. It's embarrassing. Wrestlers should work on their own personas rather than trying to indulge in their fandom during their work. Gargano for instance just looks ridiculous with his Marvel outfits. I don't know if this is unpopular to say though.
 

PeterSidorkiewicz

HFWF Tourney Undisputed Champion
Apr 30, 2004
32,442
9,701
Lansing, MI
People way overstate Vince's impact on preventing guys from being stars, with 5 hours a week of Raw/Smackdown for the most part everyone gets their shot to prove themselves, and you don't always need a title to do that.

Imma stop you right there.

WWE hates when guys get themselves over, we have seen countless examples. So I do completely blame Vince/WWE. The only guy I can think of who got himself over and was able to "grab the brass ring" was Daniel Bryan.

And lets be honest, he only did that because of injuries to other wrestlers. They tried sooooo hard to keep him down. It basically took an act of god to elevate him.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sabremike

JackSlater

Registered User
Apr 27, 2010
18,042
12,664
Imma stop you right there.

WWE hates when guys get themselves over, we have seen countless examples. So I do completely blame Vince/WWE. The only guy I can think of who got himself over and was able to "grab the brass ring" was Daniel Bryan.

And lets be honest, he only did that because of injuries to other wrestlers. They tried sooooo hard to keep him down. It basically took an act of god to elevate him.

I don't think that Vince hates when people get themselves over as much as he hates when the guys who he didn't select or doesn't like get themselves over. It's an issue that started in the 2000s (Christian sticks out in my mind) and has gotten worse. He's the genetic jackhammer who KILLED his competition after all, the wrestling genius who will tell the stupid fans what they like!
 

Allie Kitsune

...and the Brawla Brawla Sewitt
Jan 7, 2006
9,948
2,324
Pennsylvania
I don't think that Vince hates when people get themselves over as much as he hates when the guys who he didn't select or doesn't like get themselves over. It's an issue that started in the 2000s (Christian sticks out in my mind) and has gotten worse. He's the genetic jackhammer who KILLED his competition after all, the wrestling genius who will tell the stupid fans what they like!

Vince also resents that most of what little fanbase he has left is more "nerd" than "dudebro".

He lost the Dudebros to MMA, and he's not getting them back, no matter how many MMA has-beens he pushes to the top.
 

Sheppy

Registered User
Nov 23, 2011
55,689
57,329
The Arctic
What pisses me off is when fans sing his entrance song, and do the bowing gesture. Boo the f*** out of him, for the love of god.

The guy's music hits and he gets a massive pop and I have no idea why the f*** that happens.
 

JackSlater

Registered User
Apr 27, 2010
18,042
12,664
Vince also resents that most of what little fanbase he has left is more "nerd" than "dudebro".

He lost the Dudebros to MMA, and he's not getting them back, no matter how many MMA has-beens he pushes to the top.

Yes that's a good point too. WWE has also been hooked on chasing the kid/family friendly audience and that chase pretty much precludes the MMA type audience from watching. I don't think that Vince has known what pretty much any part of the audience actually wants since the early 1980s though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Normand Lacombe

Khelandros

Registered User
Feb 12, 2019
3,928
4,410
Three weeks of AEW tv and all i'm seeing is early 2000 WCW Nitro. NWO vs NWO wolfpack to end the show. Every. Single. Week.
 

Khelandros

Registered User
Feb 12, 2019
3,928
4,410
It has been 3 weeks and the show literally didnt end like that last night?
Your right. It ended with Hogan in the ring with his cronies popping champagne after he "beat" a guy with his hands tied behind his back. Good thing Nash was on the outside to help him out.
 

TheBeastCoast

Registered User
Mar 23, 2011
30,944
30,722
Dartmouth,NS
Your right. It ended with Hogan in the ring with his cronies popping champagne after he "beat" a guy with his hands tied behind his back. Good thing Nash was on the outside to help him out.
A heel winning a match by....being a heel? I have never seen such scenes. I'm still totally failing to see your random comparison though if you want to actually lay it out.
 

MVP of West Hollywd

Registered User
Oct 28, 2008
3,491
951
AEW has talented wrestlers but all signs to me are its writing and booking is worse than WWEs. Little promos, not much attempts to build a real storyline or make someone more face or heel.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->