The WWF had:
-ugly women brawling in figure skating outfits
-buff midgets being fallen on by fat men
-a white southern aristocrat and his uneducated black servant
-animals being thrown at people
-Roddy Piper painted “half negro” for a racial feud match
The WWF hadn’t had that for over a decade. The change to WWE didn’t eliminate that, the changing industry did.
Good writing. When Mick Foley left most of the good writing left with him. The rest is hidden in a lockbox somewhere.
And speaking of God - I mean, Mick Foley - one thing the WWF had that the WWE doesn’t…
Risk.
That’s what it comes down to. Back when wrestling was still small-time, the superstars had to take risks. Big risks. They had to be thrown off the top of cages. They had to REALLY push themselves in a match. They had to do flying somersaults and tombstone piledrivers and almost get themselves killed (and, in some cases, actually succeed… ::insert moment of silence::…)
But in the WWE? Forget it. The superstars make millions of dollars a year. They’re pampered, and the Company is so deathly afraid of hurting one of them that they’re not allowed to do dangerous stuff anymore (ever wonder why the Undertaker’s finisher was changed from the Tombstone to that shitty “Old School Walk On The Ropes And Then Deliver a Flying Chop” move?).
I remember when they had four of their superstars in a Hell In A Cell. All four wound up on top of it. NOBODY fell off (well, Rikishi did, but he fell into a truck that had padding in it, so that doesn’t count).
And… well, the Spinneroonie has to go. That was utterly ridiculous.
::sigh::
I miss wrestling.
Look at the injury roster, guys are getting hurt (especially head and neck injuries) at a pretty alarming rate. The risk is still there, but no one who has made their name should be risking their career for a one-shot highlight.
There was a trend a while back of wrestlers doing insane bumps for the adoring fans, but few of those wrestlers are still in the ring because their bodies just gave out. They have post-concussion syndrome, hip replacements, shot knees, and are in constant pain.
Leave Scott Steiner alone.
I miss calling it the WWF.
I miss Mick Foley. I miss Mick and The Rock trading barbs.
I miss Stone Cold driving big-ass vehicles to the ring. And scaring the crap out of Vince McMahon.
The Goldberg-Austin beer bash was unexpectedly cool. If you would have told me a few years ago… I miss great concepts like the Bushwackers or the Nasty Boys, or Boodieman, uhm, wait, no I dont.
The biggest thing I miss?
The Best There Is, The Best There Was, and The Best There Ever Will Be: Bret “The Hitman” Hart.
Feh… screw WWE. I miss NWA/WCW.
I miss Edge & Christian (as “Edge & Christian” the tag team)
I miss Head Cheese (for some reason I thought their skits were hilarious.)
I miss Rob Van Dam as a credible singles competitor.
I miss Paul Heyman’s writing on Smackdown.
I miss Paul Heyman’s commentary on Raw (They need to bring back the heel announcer, damnit).
I miss the Rock.
I miss Triple H being injured.
I miss Kurt Angle.
I miss Jeff Hardy - not the recently fired Jeff, but the Jeff of a few years ago. The man who delivered a Swanton from the archway onto Bubba Dudley. The man who had fire in his eyes.
I miss Mick Foley.
I miss good writing.
I miss when Flair was cool and not verbally fellating Trips.
I miss when the shows were so good they didn’t have to bring in crappy wrestlers like Hogan and Steiner - sorry, penny dreadful but the only reason Steiner is watchable is the off chance he may a) blow up real good or snap in a Roid rage and eat his opponent’s head.
I miss marking out - last time I marked out was when Dreamer and RVD ran in during Invasion - the reformation of ECW.
That’s sort of what I was thinking.
That’s something else I was thinking.
I miss lots of things in the current product.
I miss guys having the same characters for their whole career. Tweaks and evolution and development are great, but the constant changes of characters hurts the product. It’s hard enough to suspend disbelief as it is, but when Prototype John Cena…I mean the likable new kid John Cena…I mean the rapper John Cena goes through more gimmicks in three years than Ric Flair went through in 25 it gets frustrating.
I miss having (at least) two major feds with two distinctly different styles to choose from. There’s no more excitement of seeing how Wrestler X will fare when he goes to a different territory. About the only alternative in the U.S. (on a national level) is NWA-TNA, which 1) you have to pay to see and 2) is being ruined by Russo booking and a dozen other things.
I miss wrestlers looking different from each other and having different movesets and styles. When Tajiri wrestles more or less like Hulk Hogan, there’s a problem. It seems like all of the guys nowadays are cut from the same mold, given very slight tweaking and two or three unique moves and that’s it. Some of the greatest in the history of the industry wouldn’t cut it in the WWE right now. Do you think Abdullah The Butcher could win Tough Enough? Would Bruiser Brody play office politics and work on his six-pack? Stan Hansen is too fat, Terry Gordy is too ugly, Magnum T.A. is too Southern and don’t even think about Bruno Sammartino or Ricky Steamboat.
For those of you who have seen Japanese wrestling and are familiar with greats like Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, etc. - think about where they’d be in the WWE. Probably right beside Funaki and with 1/4 of their current moveset.
I miss jobber matches. Lord help me, but I do. That was a great way to showcase the guys they wanted to push without burying anyone valuable. Now if they want to get a wrestler over, they’ll just feed some mid-carders to him or give him a ton of screen time in goofy backstage segments that aren’t special anymore because they’ve been done to death.
I miss matches being made because - well, it was a wrestling company. Matches are what happens. Now everything has to be about rivalry or punishment from someone in upper management or blah blah blah. What ever happened to competing to see which one would win? Crazy concept, I know…
I miss it being treated more like a sport. Sure it’s not a sport, but doing it the way they do it just makes everyone not care. Matches don’t mean anything anymore. Championships don’t mean anything any more. Friendships, rivalries and characters come and go so fast that they don’t mean anything anymore. Hell, I’m not sure what ANY of it is supposed to mean anymore. As long as you buy the next PPV and/or stick around to see what will happen in the next segment, I guess they don’t think it matters.
No one misses Hulk Hogan? That’s ok, I don’t either.
How can you miss him when he won’t go away?
What do you mean? Vince McMahon sent him home and is going to pay out his contract, or are you one of those conspiracy theorists who think that Mr. America is Hogan in a ridiculous mask.
I am so very sorry to be the one to tell you this, but they never did.
Well, on some level, life itself really doesn’t mean anything. But without more to go on…
Mind elaborating a little?