I just started getting into WWE after two previous wrestling stints.
When I was SUPER young I was a fan of the old Hogan/Ultimate Warrior/Andre era.
Got back into it in the 90s with WCW.
And now back again for the last 6 or so months because my girlfriend (no, really!) got me back into it.
So is there anyone else who’s a fan out there? Maybe we can turn this into a running thread of whats happening in the Universe?
Rollins! I think he’s going to be a great heel.
This completely breaks my heart.
I love love love Rollins and thought he was the best part of The Shield, hands down. Reigns is boring. Ambrose is entertaining but no where near as good in the ring as Rollins, and Rollins just had it all.
That being said it’s a PERFECT heel turn to actually break my heart. But now my biggest question is…what’s he gonna wear?!? I can’t see him in anything but SWAT gear.
And that right there is the perfect motivation for the heel turn. Reigns is supposed to be the big future star, and Ambrose the leader… and yet the true heart and soul of the Shield was always Rollins. He never got the attention he deserved. Now, he will.
Ever since I was a kid and Paul Jones turned on Ricky Steamboat, I’ve always rooted for the villains. I remember getting dirty looks from other fans when I cheered for Ric Flair in the Richmond Coliseum. Good times. Plus there is always a sound logic to rooting for the heels. After all, the winner is supposed to be the guy who can beat the other guy senseless. Nice guys SHOULD finish last in this kind of sport. And arguing about wrestling with other fans using the heel point of view is all kinds of fun.
Alright, you’re on my list! Besides having bedroom eyes, pouty lips, and a hot bod, Reigns has also improved greatly in the promo department and I love that Superman punch. Also he’s a Georgia Tech grad and we’re a Tech family.
It’s going to suck to see any of them in something other than tactical stuff. I only hope they continue to wear pants rather than going to the short tights.
I also really like Bray Wyatt (that upside down thing is creepy!) and Luke Harper (he has this great finisher, the Truck Stop, that he used in the indies. Don’t know if he’s used it in WWE.) They are both very agile for big men.
And does anyone else think that John Cena is a heel in disguise? He’s so insufferably moral and do-goody, and everyone loves to hate him. I liked him a lot better when he was a Doctor of Thuganomics. I want to see him succumb to the dark side in spectacular fashion, but it’ll never happen.
I’m a big mark for the Wyatts. Here’s a Tshirt design I made of them.
It did sadden me to see Seth Rollins turn on the Shield, as they made for such a cool outlaw group. But, their breakup was bound to happen, and they need to grow into their single careers. Plus, Seth and Daniel Bryan had an absolutely amazing match on RAW a few months ago, one I considered the Match of the Year. Seth will be an awesome solo performer, but I’m gonna miss the Shield.
I don’t see Cena turning heel until he’s in his 40’s. He’s still in the “young upstart” stage, and Bryan keeps running into bad luck too much to stay top face.
I started watching in 94 when Bret was champ and the Kliq was working in the background. Long time HBK fan, I’ll watch anything of his. When he broke his back and Raw started changing from matches to skits and promos, I switched more to ECW and followed RVD. I had to quit ECW when they lost their TNN show and I couldn’t get Hardcore TV anymore. I finally gave up on WWF sometime during the invasion angle. It had so much potential, but fell flat. I wanted to watch Summerslam 02 for HBK’s return, but I didn’t get it.
I watched off and on from then on. I usually knew who the champ was, but only tuned in for big things like Wrestlemania and when Bret hosted Raw. In the summer of 2011, my dad bought me tickets to a house show and I started watching PPVs again. I finally started watching Raw again in the fall of 2011.
I wish Raw would go back to 2 hours. I wouldn’t even mind if it went back to 1 hour like it was when I first started. You used to only see big matches on PPV. Now, they’ll announce a big match by having them wrestle on Raw for 3 weeks before the PPV, then on the PPV, then Raw again the next night. Now they have too much time to fill.
Push Ziggler!
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Money In The Bank winner ends up being either Cena or a surprise return by Batista (remember when everybody thought Daniel Bryan was leaving WWE?), who then decides, “I don’t want the belt this way; I’ll wait for Daniel Bryan to return, and then cash in the briefcase.”
What they should have done: have him hand over one of his two belts, then, when he’s better, they’ll hang both belts over the ring and have a ladder match for the “unified” title (after which they can finally retire one of them - having both of them around is meaningless unless there’s another split coming up).
I am hoping the days of a non-heel Cena winning the championship in any way at all are OVER.
Batista/Bryan could be good, as the “broken promises” relate to Batista not getting the title at Wrestlemania. But if we are supposedly moving to Brock/Bryan at Summerslam, we really don’t need Cena at all in the title picture. Brock could carry the title all the way to Wrestlemania 2015.
I say give it back to Orton, who never really lost the WWE Championship fairly anyway.
Don’t expect a Cena heel turn any time soon - he’s still far too over with Make-A-Wish kids. It would be like asking Fonzie to get a crew cut.
I, like you, got back into the show last year after having last been a WCW fan in the '90s. It’s hit-or-miss these days - the average 3-hour episode of Raw has 2 or 3 good matches sandwiched in between a lot of squashes, throwaway comedy matches, and endless recaps, but with DVR it’s a lot less painful to sit through than it would have been in the old days.
Honestly, most of the best wrestling I’ve seen in the company lately has been coming out of NXT, their developmental indie-esque league down in Florida. (You can watch their weekly TV show on the WWE network if you’re a subscriber.) Guys like Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn, Tyler Breeze, and the Ascension are all going to make a big splash once they eventually come up to the main roster.
I’m a fan of old school southern wrassin’. I grew up watching the Carolina and Tennessee territories; Mongolian Stomper, Fuller Brothers, Ronnie Garvin, Bob Orton,Jr., Blackjack Mulligan. Most of the WWE product doesn’t appeal to me, although I do find Bray Wyatt interesting. He does the cult thing better than Kevin Sullivan did in Florida, and he has his Grandpappy Blackjack’s smile. I completely lost interest in WWE when the Rock was big. I think he could have given great promos if he had been allowed to, but instead he just spouted off a bunch of catchphrases.
I cannot wait for Sami Zayn to make the main roster.
He’s already wrestled on the main roster at house shows during their tour of Saudi Arabia recently, where he’s apparently massively over (he’s a Canadian of Syrian descent and speaks fluent Arabic). The main roster is definitely lacking in solid cruiserweights right now, so his eventual debut is going to be a breath of fresh air.
I, personally, am looking forward to the debut of the Ascension - they remind me so much of teams like Demolition or the Road Warriors, who were technically heels but became fan favorites anyway because they were just that damn good.
I remain amazed that Roman Reigns didn’t defeat the Undertaker at Wrestlemania.
I don’t think Batista’s coming back any time soon. He’s off to promote Guardians of the Galaxy, and WWE didn’t get the face reaction they wanted when he came back earlier.
I was aware of, but not into, wrestling when I was growing up in the 1980s–but if you were a kid back then, you pretty much couldn’t help but pick some of it up by osmosis. I actually started watching it in the early 2000s, right around the beginning of Cena’s push, and the brand split. Why do I remember that it was right around the beginning of Cena’s push? Because I couldn’t stand that guy. He pretty much drove me away from the product back then.
Anyway, happened to read The Squared Circle, which has lots of great stuff about the history of the business, and found myself interested again. While the product is not without its problems at the moment, it’s still a great time–lots of new talent coming up, thanks to HHH’s baby, NXT. And, when Vince eases back and lets HHH and Steph run things, good things seem to happen–see, e.g., WrestleMania 30. It will, I suspect, only get better as he and Kevin Dunn step further and further away from active control.
I love watching NXT on the network (which I have). But for the last couple of weeks I cannot get a good feed of it. It will constantly go back and replay the same 5 seconds about three times in a row, then jump ahead, then go in and out of HD, it’s SO frustrating.
Even when I watched Payback it was doing it. I had to end up streaming it on my computer instead of using the PS3. Is anyone else having network problems?
Also wanna know how to anger everyone in this thread? I do. I really don’t like Bray Wyatt that much. He just bores me to death. His schtick was cool when he came out and waxed philosophy for a while, but then he did it again…and again…and again…and again…It just got boring because he never said anything new. He’s a fine wrestler and he really is a fine talker, he just needs to monologue less, and DO more.
If there’s one thing that disappoints me a lot in WWE right now is lack of tag teams. The Usos are pretty cool in their own right, and Rowan and Harper and good, but I’m saddened that the Shield weren’t in the picture more, and that they killed the Brotherhood. So now we have Ryabaxel? Los Matadores (LOVE TORITO!)? friggin 3MB? Ugh…
Is now a good time to come back? My wrestling fandom almost exactly coincides with the OP’s timewise (except I first got into WWF during the Bret Hart era rather than the Hogan era.)
You know what was fun for me? Meeting new people (The Shield…Big E…Cesaro) and forming my own opinions on everyone not knowing who they were. I didn’t know if they were heels, or faces, or anything…but I could figure out who I liked.
It was also fun for me when they reference people I know. “Holy shit Goldust is STILL wrestling?!?” “That’s Jericho! wow!”
Also if you can afford 60 bucks the Network really is fun. Easy to watch, Countdown is a ball to watch, all the PPVs, the documentaries, it’s cool