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Arena The Squared Circle (Pro Wrestling)

Discussion in 'Archive: The Arena' started by USTommie, Apr 8, 2008.

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  1. USTommie

    USTommie Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 12, 2002
    I was watching the Stone Cold Steve Austin DVD set last night and flipped to WWE's RAW (or whatever it's called now) and the dichotomy was amazing. I have no idea if anyone else even cares about pro wrestling, but I used to love it when I was in high school and college (during the "Monday Night Wars" through 2002). It's amazing to me how far the WWE has fallen since the days of The Rock and Stone Cold. I remember tuning in each week to see what they'd do next, and usually laughing out loud at the humor. A few things stick out in my head:

    Mick Foley's This Is Your Life segment with The Rock
    Austin spraying beer on The Rock
    Kurt Angle spraying milk on Stone Cold
    Any Rock v. Austin feud bit/promo
    Austin beating Booker T in the grocery store
    Austin v. Mr. McMahon (any)
    Mr. Socko!
    The Rock N' Sock Connection
    Team ECK (Edge, Christian, Kurt Angle)
    The Five Second Pose by Edge & Christian (For the benefit of those with flash photography)


    I'm no longer the WWE's target audience, but I do tune in briefly every so often to see what they're doing (and because I still like HBK). Aside from the great tribute to Ric Flair, I haven't seen anything on WWE programming in the last few years that makes me believe they can ever duplicate the success they had ten years ago. It must've been the competition with WCW (and to a lesser extent ECW) that forced the WWE to come up with great programming. With no real competition (TNA doesn't count), clearly it's become a shadow of its former self.
     
  2. Evil_X_13

    Evil_X_13 Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Apr 8, 2008
    My thoughts: Wrestling was much better back in the day now its all crap.
     
  3. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Agreed.
     
  4. MarcusP2

    MarcusP2 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 10, 2004
    It's pretty much common thought amongst the wrestling community. :p

    I doubt I could name one segment of the last 5 years, or the results of any matches. Last one I recall being excited about was Jericho winning the first ever undisputed championship, though I did enjoy Eddie getting the title.
     
  5. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    I the heart of everything really went out of it when Benoit and his family died.

    Though I did cry watching Flair's match at WM XXIV.
     
  6. USTommie

    USTommie Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 12, 2002
    The last two posts bring up a good question - when did the bottom fall out of the WWE (or wrestling in general)?

    I would say the first domino that started it all was the horrible mismanagement in WCW that lead to Vince buying it outright. Had WCW continued, I'm guessing the quality would be closer to what we all used to enjoy. I think once the bookers in WCW buried enough rising stars (who in turn fled to the WWE), they ended up not having anyone to carry the company into the early 00's.

    Once Vince bought WCW, it was only a matter of time before the quality went downhill. It didn't help that his two top draws (Austin and The Rock) left right around the same time, but plenty more mistakes were made to help send it spiraling downhill.
     
  7. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    I still try to pay attention to HBK and keep up to date on his stuff. He's been my favorite for 12 years now and I still have a crush on him. [face_blush]
     
  8. USTommie

    USTommie Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 12, 2002
    I think HBK is great too - I have his entrance music as my cell phone ring. The only thing that sucks about him is that he was injured during the majority of The Rock/Austin timeframe. His matches with Austin were awesome though. I can only imagine how awesome it would've been to see Austin and The Rock take on HBK and HHH at a PPV...
     
  9. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    See and I enjoyed the HBK vs Razor Ramon Ladder matches, HBK and Diesel tag matches, etc.
     
  10. Robimus

    Robimus Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 6, 2007
    Yes, the WWE has done a lot of good but a lot of bad for the industry as a whole making a lot of old school fans jump ship(including myself). I watch TNA for my wrestling fix though sometimes they move toward a more WWE style product as well. I love the added importance TNA places on both the Tag and X-Divisions and also the way the top guys in TNA aren't scared to put over the younger talent. A couple examples from the past year or so would be Jay Lethal over Angle, Abyss over Sting, Joe over Angle(even though he lost the feud), Roode over Jarrett....the list goes on and on. And Awesome Kong makes womens wrestling by herself!!!!! She's a female version of Kamala and her matches with Gail Kim =P~ have all been really good.

    Yeah, Dig It!!!!-Black Machismo
     
  11. Evil_X_13

    Evil_X_13 Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Apr 8, 2008
    I sort of did, lol. I was a big fan of him.
     
  12. MarcusP2

    MarcusP2 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 10, 2004
    As I mentioned in a thread in JCC, the total botch of the Invasion I think started the downward spiral. I've never been as excited about a wrestling event since.
     
  13. Jaina_and_Jag

    Jaina_and_Jag Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 19, 2003
    I became a fan of wrestling after "the good years." I started watching in 2003 and still watch today. I honestly don't have a real problem with the product, but that's probably because I wasn't watching during "the glory days."

    I've watched at little TNA, but I mostly just stick to the WWE.
     
  14. USTommie

    USTommie Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 12, 2002
    Jaina, have you ever seen any of the promos, matches, or highlights from back then? What do you think of them?

    When I was in the gym today I saw a guy wearing a "JUST BRING IT" t-shirt and I laughed my butt off. The Rock will always be my favorite wrestler. Know your role, shut your mouth!
     
  15. SLR

    SLR Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 2002
    Good point. A tag match in the late 90s with Rock and Austin vs. a HHH and HBK DX would have been great. The pranks and promos leading into the match would have been top notch and memorable as well.
     
  16. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    A high point for me was the 10 man tag team match on RAW in January/Febuary of 2000. The crowd was hot for from bell to bell. I don't think I've ever heard a crowd be that excited for a match and it's participants before or since.
     
  17. MarcusP2

    MarcusP2 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 10, 2004
    The one with Benoit/Saturn/HHH/etc? IIRC, that is the highest rated wrestling segment on RAW of all time.
     
  18. Jaina_and_Jag

    Jaina_and_Jag Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 19, 2003
    My one friend owns a couple DX DVDs that I've seen, but other than that I haven't seen much... Although I've heard a lot about the promos, I've never watched them.
     
  19. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    In the past, WWF/WWE has been cycular- you had the heydey of the 80's and early 90's where there was a certain degree of respect given to it as (usually family-oriented) entertainment spectacle, but by the time of Wrestlemania 9 or 10, it was pretty much bottoming out, and it wallowed around there for a few years until the "attitude era" and monday night wars brought it back up in popularity, though it abandoned the family aspect of things and started to acquire a "lowest common denominator" stigma around things, but that was ok, because people like Austin and The Rock had genuine personality and charisma that could carry things.

    Now, they don't really have that, and are further handicapped by Vince's stupid antics. I tried watching WWE Raw last year for a few months, but it showed very little promise- Edge is about the most talented guy they have, and if he ever turned face, they might have a real shot at making something big of him- and they even had 2 or 3 great opportunities while I was watching to naturally transition him in that direction, but they pulled back each time and had Vince do more stupid stuff.

    But, if the cycle continues, they might be able to reinvent themselves sometime in the next couple years.
     
  20. Evil_X_13

    Evil_X_13 Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Apr 8, 2008
    TNA is really really really bad.
     
  21. darth_nemisis

    darth_nemisis Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    May 15, 2004
    Yeah, I am going agree with everyone here...Wrestling just isn't what it use to be. The golden age, for me, was from like...97-2002. That's when I was a HUGE fan of it. I bought all the PPV's, watched every show, bought all the action figures :p. I have a collection of probably over 100 action figures from those days that are just sitting in a box in my closet.

    Anyway, I watch occasionally. I like to keep up with Jeff Hardy (he was my favorite), RKO, HHH and HBK and that's really it. I don't care about any of those new guys, I don't know who any of them are. :p
     
  22. Evil_X_13

    Evil_X_13 Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Apr 8, 2008
    Yes the Hardy Boyz were my all-time favorite tag team partners.
     
  23. Robimus

    Robimus Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 6, 2007
    I miss Barry Horowitz......:D
     
  24. Anakin_Heartbreaker

    Anakin_Heartbreaker Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 24, 2004
    Cool! A wrestling thread! :D

    I was at the Hall of Fame, WrestleMania 24 and Monday Night Raw events in Orlando a couple of days back. It was incredible to see the greatest wrestler perform live in his last match.

    I went back home and noticed that they did not show all the of the Hall of Fame. I mean Rock alone spoke for two hours straight, as did Flair.

    Raw also did not show Undertaker coming into the ring and saluting Flair by doing his trademark pose in the ring. Vince also came down and gave Flair a big hug, which got a BIG pop from the crowd.

    They all then waited for Flair to leave, no one stopped clapping. Awesome weekened, better than last year at Mania 23 in Detroit.
     
  25. Evil_X_13

    Evil_X_13 Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Apr 8, 2008
    Im jelous now.[face_frustrated]
     
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