I know I’m not the only Doper who is addicted to sports entertainment. I may be the only Doper with an action figure collection-if they would only make a Spike Dudley and a Rob Van Dam…
I’ll start by admitting to my biggest mark out moment. I’m watching Raw and the Dudley Boyz are in a match. The Boyz were originally from ECW. They had a whole Dudley family, including little brother Spike-a man six feet tall, about 150 pounds who would kick the bigger guy’s asses and take the craziest risks. I named my kitten after him.
So anyway, the Boyz are losing and Spike comes running in unannounced. As in no one knew he was debuting with the WWF.
I remember screaming “Holy Shit! It’s Spike!” and immediately emailing my best friend who was at work and couldn’t see it.
So, fellow Dopers, admit your love for wrestling here. I know some people who will post here, but I want to see some surprising names as well. Don’t be ashamed to admit it.
If you smellllll what hardygrrl’s cooking…
My Dad took me to Wrestlemania II in April of 1986. I saw Hulk Hogan wrestle King Kong Bundy. It rocked.
For me, wrestling went downhill when all of a sudden, they decided to not have any “good guys” and “bad guys” anymore. Nothing was cooler than when a traditionally good guy like Andre the Giant defected to the bad side. It was also cool seeing lifer villians like Rowdy Roddy Piper convert to the good side.
I will still occasionally watch a match or two on Free-Per-View in my apartment, but generally the stuff is too out of control. I don’t like seeing girls getting smacked around and I think that pro wrestling lost its innocence when they started parading girls around half naked. If I want that kind of stuff, I’ll watch Baywatch or something.
Why don’t they bring the Ultimate Warrior out of retirement? That would be cool.
Hogan IS back. He just calls himself “Undertaker” now. Not that I’m bitter.
The recent TLC match on Smackdown rocked the casbah, but my biggest markout moment is STILL the Booker T/Chris Benoit best of seven matches on WCW (Not sure of the exact date, but sometime after the Outsiders, and before the nWo really started to suck hard). I was hypnotized by the matches, and the way that they actually went back and forth, thereby putting BOTH wrestlers over. That was when I really became a fan of both wrestlers. THespos: Wrestling has definatily gotten cruder, and I think this is one of the legitamite complaints that can be lodged against professional wrestling. If you want to make PG-13/R rated entertainment, then stop marketting to children, kay?
Quick note: The Ultimate Warrior made a comeback to the WCW a couple of years ago. His character called himself The Warrior, and he even had a Batsignal looking spotlight symbol. He, ummm…didn’t last very long. Simply put, comic book wrestlers are a little too silly nowadays coughKane!cough
Taker annoys the crap out of me with his “I sell for no one, unless they hit me with a chair five times” attitude. It was one thing when his character was supposed to be the walking dead but…get over yourself and job cleanly, you grizzled old fart.
I remember that Warrior comback - Hogan had to pretend to be quivering with fright for twenty solid minutes while Warrior cut the most boring promo ever.
My favorite wrestling moment happened recently. Myself along with three friends got together to watch Wrestlemania X7 which was held here in Houston. It was the most amazing three hours in my wrestling life. Match after match was great all leading up to SCSA and McMahon becoming friends. It was incredible.
For me, the only real professional wrestling was Mid South Wrestling. It always came on around here at 10:30 on Saturday night when I was a wee lad. I always knew that it was time to rock when I heard the theme music, ZZ Top’s “Just Got Paid”. Mid South featured a few future WWF and WCW stars like Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Ted DiBiase, Junkyard Dog (G*d rest his soul) and probably some others that I have forgotten about. Then you had guys like Kimala “The Ugandan Warrior”, Mr. Wrestling ( I and II), Terry Taylor, Dusty Rhodes, “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, “Hacksaw” Butch Reed, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Ole and Arn Anderson, Koko B. Ware and the infamous manager General Skandar Ackbar.
What memories… my bed as the squared circle, pillows representing the bad guys whom I relentlessly pummeled with suplexes, body slams and the dreaded DDT, or who were subjected to my spirit crushing submission holds like the figure four leg lock or the sleeper hold.
Then my local affiliate stopped carrying Mid South when the cable era began, and the WCW or WWF or whatever took over. I remember specifically when my infatuation with wrestling ended. It was when “Leapin” Lanny Poffo was reading one of those insipid poems before getting trounced once again in front of an arena full of fans by whomever he was up against that night. Poems? Wrestling? An arena? None of it made sense anymore. It still doesn’t. But Turner South carries classic MSW now, with your host, The American Dream, Dusty Rhodes. It brings back such memories.
Yeah, he apparently went to the Steph Mcmahon/Sid Viscious School Of Histronic Promos ("Dental drills? Nails on a chalkboard? We’ll make your mikework MUCH more annoying! Remember: half hour promos=RATINGS).
hardygrrl: Shucks. ‘twern’t nuthin’. TheSmarks is a kickass site that I found thanks to wrestlecrap (RIP). Aside from their blantant anti-Rock bias, I find myself in agreement with their articles…and they’re funny as hell. I haven’t gotten to look at TheShooters.net too much yet, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far.
Last word on the Taker: To paraphrase a column from TheSmarks: Would it KILL you to sell ONE fucking punch that’s not delivered by your “brother”?
Bubba Ray: You said it. That was quickly becoming one of my favorite sites, and then it closed because it got too popular. Only on the Internet.
I keep waiting for him to start no-selling chairshots, too.
My all time favorite match was Rock vs. Mick Foley in the “I quit” match. I guess I’m just a mark for gratuitous chair shots. What pushed this match over the top for me was seeing the results of those chairshots in “Beyond the Mat”, Anyone who makes a blanket “Wrestling is Fake” statement should see that movie. Scripted?..yes Choreographed?..yes Fake?.. hell no
Since this is a thread for wrestling fans, I’d like to bring up three topics for discussion:
**Workrate
Restholds
X-Pac Sucks**
I’ll take X-Pac Sucks.
I hate X-Pac. Hate him, hate him, HATE HIM. WTF was Vince thinking? “I know what the fans want. A greasy haired runt with three moves. The best parts are when he pretends to be a ninja and waves his arms around. I’ll give him the crappiest intro music ever and have him walk around like he has a load in his pants. Did I mention he talks like his tongue is stapled to the roof of his mouth? And he really likes to point out his crotch and stick it in people’s faces. I give you our newest WWF Superstar…X-Pac!”
Sealemon88, the only good thing about Triple H being out is not having to hear Steph shrieking “Hunnterrrr” during his matches. Vince, please get her a vocal coach.
I dated a guy for about a year who was totally obsessed with WWF wrestling. It came on like three times a week and we never missed it. At first I absolutely hated it and I would study or read to keep myself entertained while he watched tv. I eventually started watching it. I never really liked it, but I was a good girlfriend and tried not to complain too much. I wouldn’t call myself a fan, but I know the names of all the wrestlers and I know all of their moves.
It didn’t work out between us. Oh darn.
In my opinion, WWF was going pretty slow for a while (Although I’m liking the WCW Alliance vs. WWF story right now). My favorite time EVER was when Mick Foley left the WWF as Mankind and came back as Cactus Jack. I literally jumped out of my chair and screamed “FOLEY’S BACK! YESSSSS!”.
