[Garethw]

Originally Posted by phelans shorts

Just noticed no one picked up in Jerichos tweet yesterday, hinting at an upcoming Punk feud.

I think him coming into punks match on Raw and beating him down was more of a hint?

[phelans shorts]

Originally Posted by Garethw

I think him coming into punks match on Raw and beating him down was more of a hint?

I didn't watch it, so wouldn't know.

[101]

Originally Posted by phelans shorts

I didn't watch it, so wouldn't know.

Jericho tweeted before Raw:

I got something to say... #raw

Punk tweeted:

I wonder if anyone's got anything to say?

Jericho came out during Punk and Bryan's match and gave him the Codebreaker.

[Pimpy the Magic Elf]

Originally Posted by Leroy The Red

The problem nowadays is that the biggest moaners (those in their mid 20's) can't seem to grasp the main reason why wrestling isn't that fun for them anymore. The naivety in watching wrestling has gone.
The mid 20's lot are still living off the Attitude era where they were in their young years, they can't seem to understand that it's not that wrestling has all of a sudden become incredibly shit, it's that they've grown up and know too much.
Of course it still isn't as great as it was back in the late 90's but it's actually better than it was in the mid 90's. I'll admit I don't enjoy it as much as I once did but I still appreciate it. Too many people nowadays watch it with a stupid amount of cynicism and then act all surprised when they're not satisfied after a ppv.

The mid 90s was the greatest time in all of wrestling history thanks to the incredible crop of female performers in japan who blew away every male wrestler past present or future.

[MUFCgal]

I've been watching WWE from around 1989-1990, I was about 6 or 7 years old. I kind of fell away from it around 1995, but I got back into it again around 1998 (I was 15 years old then). I knew it was staged, but it was just so much better back then.

The characters, the storylines, the feuds, the stables, the tag-teams......everything was just brilliant. My god, even the mid-carders were cheered like crazy every week whereas these days, even guys who are involved at the top level can barely get great pops.

I still watch it from time to time, but not as religiously as I once did. I still go to their live shows when they come here to Belfast, but for how much longer will I go? I honestly can't say. I watched some of the Rumble highlights, and one of the best parts for me was the Road Dogg coming down to the ring. I was singing along to 'Oh you didn't know'

[Annihilate Now!]

Fucking hell... RAW starts with an incredibly shit Triple H promo?? I haven't missed this for the last year or so I have to say...

Has he seemingly forgotten that he lost that fucking match?? He was putting it over as if he won...

[Ronaldo No.9]

Originally Posted by MUFCgal

I've been watching WWE from around 1989-1990, I was about 6 or 7 years old. I kind of fell away from it around 1995, but I got back into it again around 1998 (I was 15 years old then). I knew it was staged, but it was just so much better back then.

The characters, the storylines, the feuds, the stables, the tag-teams......everything was just brilliant. My god, even the mid-carders were cheered like crazy every week whereas these days, even guys who are involved at the top level can barely get great pops.

I still watch it from time to time, but not as religiously as I once did. I still go to their live shows when they come here to Belfast, but for how much longer will I go? I honestly can't say. I watched some of the Rumble highlights, and one of the best parts for me was the Road Dogg coming down to the ring. I was singing along to 'Oh you didn't know'

This

Him and Billy Gunn were awesome back in the day, they certainly knew how to get a crowd going.

[Zarlak]

Why are they, in the run up to the EC, playing the Scottish rendition of Amazing Grace in the background of an Irish superstars promo?

[kietotheworld]

Originally Posted by Zarlak

Why are they, in the run up to the EC, playing the Scottish rendition of Amazing Grace in the background of an Irish superstars promo?

Because 99% of people watching won't know, and 99.9% won't care?

[phelans shorts]

I find it highly annoying.

[Zarlak]

Originally Posted by kietotheworld

Because 99% of people watching won't know, and 99.9% won't care?

Probably. Also just flicked over to Smackdown to see if it was worth watching yet, then I saw Santino and Jim Duggan in a tag team, and D Bryan banging on about being a vegan and this really shite angle with his 'girlfriend' and whether he loves her or not and decided no. I'll stick with RAW for now.

[Silva]

RAW was terrible, just terrible.

[Annihilate Now!]

You mean video package television??

I enjoyed the Daniel Bryan/Big Show stuff, the Jericho promo was just okay, the tag match was fine for a match that involved Khali, and the main event was a bit of a mess... everything else was pretty dire, the number of recaps/video package was an insult, the Kane bit at the end was dreadful... and anything that involved HHH was utter garbage.

[Leroy The Red]

So WWE are going down the man City route.
Undertaker may have beaten Triple H last year but because he was stretched off, it was seen as a moral victory for Triple H.

[Annihilate Now!]

Originally Posted by Leroy The Red

So WWE are going down the man City route.
Undertaker may have beaten Triple H last year but because he was stretched off, it was seen as a moral victory for Triple H.

This pissed me off no end. If someone who hadn't seen the match last year and didn't know the result was watching... they would have no reason not to believe that HHH won the match.

Not only that, but he almost devalued the whole idea of Undertaker's streak... I mean, fuck that, I beat him up bad, and that's more important!

On another note... we have an Ambulance match to look forward to at Elimination Chamber it seems, which is just an awful awful match type. The basic idea is "I hate you so much, I'm going to assist you on your way to getting medical attention" ... urgh, I was barely looking forward to a Kane Cena match as is, but that stipulation definitely means I'm out.

[Leroy The Red]

Originally Posted by Annihilate Now!

This pissed me off no end. If someone who hadn't seen the match last year and didn't know the result was watching... they would have no reason not to believe that HHH won the match.

Not only that, but he almost devalued the whole idea of Undertaker's streak... I mean, fuck that, I beat him up bad, and that's more important!

On another note... we have an Ambulance match to look forward to at Elimination Chamber it seems, which is just an awful awful match type. The basic idea is "I hate you so much, I'm going to assist you on your way to getting medical attention" ... urgh, I was barely looking forward to a Kane Cena match as is, but that stipulation definitely means I'm out.

But yeah the whole Taker/HHH thing is absolutely dreadful, Taker could have faced Jericho, Punk or Orton, to do Undertaker/HBK twice in a row was a bit iffy but HHH/Taker twice in a row, fucking hell.
Last year they ignored the fact Undertaker beat HHH at Wrestlemania 17, now they're doing a THIRD FUCKING match on the basis HHH was the moral winner last year, absurd. I'm always defending the WWE but this is just retarded.

[Minkaro]

I dunno why they couldn't just have Cena vs. Kane in a plain old Falls Count Anywhere match. I know they've done one recently with Orton vs. Barrett, but surely just letting them wander through the backstage area throwing things at each other would help cover up the obvious limitations.

On another note, anyone else wince when R-Truth slammed into the floor during that six-way match?

[101]

Originally Posted by Minkaro

I dunno why they couldn't just have Cena vs. Kane in a plain old Falls Count Anywhere match. I know they've done one recently with Orton vs. Barrett, but surely just letting them wander through the backstage area throwing things at each other would help cover up the obvious limitations.

On another note, anyone else wince when R-Truth slammed into the floor during that six-way match?

Aye, looked like he took that fall pretty hard. Miz flopped on the catching front there. Every time I see Daniel Bryan I have to laugh. He is absolute quality.

[204Red]

The WWE is very lame these days...

Except for anything involving the Undertaker... then its awesome.

Literally, the only thing I find of any interest in Pro Wrestling is the Undertaker's entrance... on TV its captivating... and the timing of it is always bang on.

[jveezy]

Originally Posted by 101

Aye, looked like he took that fall pretty hard. Miz flopped on the catching front there. Every time I see Daniel Bryan I have to laugh. He is absolute quality.

Yeah he had to have caught hell for that backstage. I think I read that Truth overshot the flip but if Miz had broken the fall like he was supposed to, then it wouldn't have mattered. I'm surprised as hell that Truth is okay from that.

[Excal]

Miz totally blew the catch:

[101]

The more you watch that, the more you feel he sidestepped Truth!

[Neo_Mufc]

Raw was pretty crap yesterday. How many times has the rock featured in WWE since that come back?

[Zarlak]

This DB angle is pissing me off. I'm a vegan, I'm a role model, I recycle, I care about the future generations, I went for a nature walk while you all eat meat, I'm a vegan, didn't you guys know I'm a vegan, I have a Prius, do I love my girlfriend? She loves me.

I don't give a fuck. This isn't Twilight. Get in the ring and wrestle.

[gambit28]

Just saw my first Epico match, at last a tag team that acts like a tag team and is able to portray a tag team match.

[gambit28]

Originally Posted by Leroy The Red

The problem nowadays is that the biggest moaners (those in their mid 20's) can't seem to grasp the main reason why wrestling isn't that fun for them anymore. The naivety in watching wrestling has gone.
The mid 20's lot are still living off the Attitude era where they were in their young years, they can't seem to understand that it's not that wrestling has all of a sudden become incredibly shit, it's that they've grown up and know too much.
Of course it still isn't as great as it was back in the late 90's but it's actually better than it was in the mid 90's. I'll admit I don't enjoy it as much as I once did but I still appreciate it. Too many people nowadays watch it with a stupid amount of cynicism and then act all surprised when they're not satisfied after a ppv.

I agree but disagree a lot with what your saying. 90% of the matches now are mediocre. A lot of the wrestlers they have are fantastic at their set of moves and playing their mic' characters in the ring, but as actual wrestlers who can tell a story in the ring that makes it appear competitive and interesting, no. Wrestling in the early to mid 90's was a lot better then it was now. Everybody gets caught up in this late 90's business but I preffered the earlier stuff. Also WCW had better perfomers as well and wasn't just trying to be WWF mark 2. The likes of the rise of Bret Hart, the Undertaker was giving his best performances, Davey Boy Smith and Bret summer slam match was in 92. Then we had the rise of Shawn Michaels. They brought in the ladder match, ECW and Japan was starting to affect the performances of the large ppv matches and we were seeing matches that were a breath of fresh air. The WCW at the time had the likes of Sting, Vader, Cactus Jack and the Steiners in their prime performing in matches that piss all over anything you see today. We're not even in the mid 90's yet. My friend and I who are huge wrestling fans, (actually did pro wrestling training as well) were discussing this the other month, thinking was it just because we were younger, but then we even thought that early 00's was a fantastic period for the WWE as well. We watched some old matches on youtube, then both agreed that the only place we could find that level of in ring perfomance was mostly coming from Japan again and the odd ROH match.

So it's not just the naivety aspect, the fact is for me I feel is that it's all to diliuted and all the undercard stuff means jack squat anymore. Watching PPVs now is all about the top 2 main events. The rest seems so unimportant it's staggering so that when they fail to deliver it destroys the whole card, as oppposed to even the 80's where the undercard was so strong and the perfomances of the lesser wrestlers so great that the main event could just be a 10 minute pose-a-thon that gave a nice finality to the whole event and didn't leave you feeling ripped off.

The WWE does have a huge talent pool and there are some wrestlers in there who deserve to get some proper attention. I've been wanting the tag team league to be built up again properly for years, I want the Intercontinental championship to regain it's old prestige. I want for Raw and Smackdown to redifine how they operate, either as seperate identities that build from within and don't just swap the upper level wrestlers around every year, or to combine and get back to having one set of belts, the world championship, the midcard Intercontinental, the tag team and maybe a junior heavyweight title and thats it. Also I'd only have a roster swapping every 3 -4 years. This would then redefine why the wrestlers are there and mean that they would have to develop the stars so it's not all about the same thing year in year out.

[MUFCgal]

Originally Posted by 204Red

The WWE is very lame these days...

Except for anything involving the Undertaker... then its awesome.

Literally, the only thing I find of any interest in Pro Wrestling is the Undertaker's entrance... on TV its captivating... and the timing of it is always bang on.

This.

Seeing it live in person though is something that does need to be experienced. The only wrestler to ever give me chills down my spine simply by walking to the ring.

Love him.

[noodlehair]

I've always thought it was incredibly unfair how much better Undertaker's entrance is compared to everyone elses.

Someone could perform a triple backflip from the top rope, scissor suplex an opponent out of the ring with their legs whilst in mid air, and then land perfectly on the adjacent turnbucle with their eyes closed, and as far as everyone in the arena is concerned, Undertake would still usurp them just by bothering to walk out when his music hits.

[Annihilate Now!]

Originally Posted by noodlehair

I've always thought it was incredibly unfair how much better Undertaker's entrance is compared to everyone elses.

Someone could perform a triple backflip from the top rope, scissor suplex an opponent out of the ring with their legs whilst in mid air, and then land perfectly on the adjacent turnbucle with their eyes closed, and as far as everyone in the arena is concerned, Undertake would still usurp them just by bothering to walk out when his music hits.

Woah woah woah... he doesn't just walk... he walks extremely slowly.

And takes his hat off.

[MUFCgal]

Originally Posted by noodlehair

I've always thought it was incredibly unfair how much better Undertaker's entrance is compared to everyone elses.

Someone could perform a triple backflip from the top rope, scissor suplex an opponent out of the ring with their legs whilst in mid air, and then land perfectly on the adjacent turnbucle with their eyes closed, and as far as everyone in the arena is concerned, Undertake would still usurp them just by bothering to walk out when his music hits.

It's not just the walking, it's the aura the man gives off.

You know you are looking at a legend.

[RyanGoggs]

Originally Posted by MUFCgal

This.

Seeing it live in person though is something that does need to be experienced. The only wrestler to ever give me chills down my spine simply by walking to the ring.

Love him.

I think Stone Cold was another example of this. When the glass shatters and the audience reacts its a shiver down the spine moment.

[Garethw]

Taker is definately a legend, but he should never have dropped the deadman angle and gone with that ridiculous American bad ass character.

Only blip in an otherwise faultless career.

[Annihilate Now!]

Originally Posted by Garethw

Taker is definately a legend, but he should never have dropped the deadman angle and gone with that ridiculous American bad ass character.

Only blip in an otherwise faultless career.

You say this, but I would argue that that gimmick allowed him to become a better wrestler and into the great performer he has been ever since.

In the Badass gimmick, he could use different styles/moves that he wouldn't have used in his old-school Undertaker gimmick... and he could also wrestle different kinds of matches, which I think allowed him to become a better in-ring performer. He's brought those styles and moves forward back into the "Undertaker" gimmick, which has allowed him to have the multiple great matches that we've seen.

Here's a question... how many truly great, non-gimmicked wrestling matches did 'Taker have before he changed gimmick?? Off the top of my head I can't actually think of one... where as, in his time as the Badass and back as normal Undertaker I could name several, and not just the obvious ones against HBK.

As an aside, The Badass gimmick also allowed him to cut loose on the mic, and show that he is actually an excellent promo person too when given the chance.

[MUFCgal]

Originally Posted by Garethw

Taker is definately a legend, but he should never have dropped the deadman angle and gone with that ridiculous American bad ass character.

Only blip in an otherwise faultless career.

I know not everyone was a fan of the biker gimmick, but I kind of liked it. He needed a change to freshen the character up, and it was more like seeing Mark Calaway then just a character.

My all time favourite gimmick through Taker's career was the Ministry, when he was all satanic and he used to do the sacrifices.

[MUFCgal]

Originally Posted by Ronaldo No.9

This

Him and Billy Gunn were awesome back in the day, they certainly knew how to get a crowd going.

Mr Ass

[Minkaro]

I reckon Taker was at his best around 2006, in terms of match quality. I'll agree that Ministry Taker was his best gimmick though.

[Annihilate Now!]

Originally Posted by Minkaro

I reckon Taker was at his best around 2006, in terms of match quality. I'll agree that Ministry Taker was his best gimmick though.

I'd go along with that... his match against Kurt Angle at No Way Out was incredible. MOTY for that year I would say.

[Randall Flagg]

His biker gimmick was awful, as was his feud with DDP. And I really liked DDP years ago.

I used to like the ministry, but I think they fecked that up in the end too. Remeber he hung Big Bossman?

[jveezy]

I really liked the biker gimmick actually. Completely inconsistent with everything else, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The whole invasion angle was messed up so the DDP thing doesn't bother me too much in context. Maybe as an American I can enjoy the "American Badass" persona a bit more, though of course that isn't the only factor.

[RyanGoggs]

Originally Posted by jveezy

I really liked the biker gimmick actually. Completely inconsistent with everything else, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The whole invasion angle was messed up so the DDP thing doesn't bother me too much in context. Maybe as an American I can enjoy the "American Badass" persona a bit more, though of course that isn't the only factor.

I found it just a little bit too UnUndertaker. I mean, he still had the name but the gimmick just didn't really fit it. Nothing really beats Ministry Undertaker, that was so sinister and really well done, but to me the biker gimmick just didn't fit, despite it maybe closely portraying Mark Calloways real persona. It wasn't terrible but just not right.