What is the consesus of you guys’ opinions on WWF/WCW style wrestling (not real wrestling).
In WWF’s defense, I enjoy the storylines and the humor. It could do without the “Suck it,” and “Puppies,” but those kinda come naturally with such a testosterone-laden idea.
BTW, neither company (WWF, WCW) claim that their product is real. It is called (sports ENTERTAINMENT) and, while they don’t come out and say, “Hey, BTW, this is all fake,” they do not try to convince anyone ('cept gullible little kids) that it’s real.
My thoughts are that if you can settle in, not be overcritical, and realize that no one is supposed to be taking it seriously, you can enjoy it.
I’m not a real avid fan, but I’ve seen enough to gain an appreciation of it. I think its necessary to differentiate between the WWF and WCW. The WCW is, too me, the best. Not because its cleaner, but it is just more polished and less overbearing. I think the fake hitting and rhetoric is more polished and therefore entertaining. I too don’t like the “suck it” stuff and lots of the over the top story lines, especially the psuedo-castration plot from the WWF. I’m not concerned with the language or sex (thats the best part) but i don’t like the way they throw the lame vulgarities in there without constructing a context around it. They just are too lazy to give the guy a reason to say “suck it”, he just walks out and does it to the crowd for no reason, if they worked it into a tirade or a arguement then it may be entertaining.
Speaking of GLOW, I loved that show, the WWF has the advantage of including really hot, strong women wrestling. This is the ideal reason to watch WWF, watching the women wrestle in the shower in thongs and white shirts covering in soap is my kind of entertainment.
I like the WCW’s version of the wrestlers. They all have a character, but nothing stupid, they pretend to be professional athletes. The Wf by comparison are wierd characters that really don’t tie into the concept. One guy is a Pimp, OK, but why the fuck would a pimp be in a wrestling match?
Generally wrestling is fun, and while I’d like to see them be more strict in the seperation of the Saturday morning and other early shows from the Pay-per-view and latenight shows. I think TV nudity and violence is acceptable as long as its late when it is reasonable to think that parents can prevent their children from watching it. I don’t think the “we don’t put the obscene stuff on when kids are watching” arguement holds up when they go and show the clips from the previous pay-per-view event during the Saturday morning TV-G program.
All in all wrestling is cool, and Goldberg would kick the shit out of Stone Cold!
I used to be a big fan of wrestling (when I was a kid), but the stuff I see on there now is pretty bad. Even if it’s not “real” there is a lot more real-looking violence. (more blood, more props being smashed on each other) I just now saw an ad for wrestling where one guy is set on fire. For adults, I think that’s fine. Watch whatever you want- but you see a lot of kids watching this stuff, and it just makes me worried. There also weren’t the sexual tones to wrestling when I used to watch it. All I know is I wouldn’t let my kids watch it, but for adults- hey- to each his own!
An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.
I used to enjoy it, back in the days of hulk hogan and macho man savage…(mid to late 80’s) but now I cant let my kids watch it due to the extreme sex content…men kissing ( if they were in love and all that, I would not have a problem but just for shock value-no thank you!) and this ‘suck it’ stuff, well, when my darling son (7 years old at the time) came home from school and showed me what he had learned (grabbed his crotch and told me to SUCK IT…well, I was less than pleased.
They have the viewers, and after what happened to Owen Hart, I believe they need to tone it down…kids loved it before they went nuts…they will love it still.
Kellibelli, I was a fan of WWF at the same time you were. Oh, it was fun, wasn’t it?
I don’t watch it now, though. Guess I kind of grew out of it. I don’t begrudge anyone else watching it, though. Pro wresting is a soap opera with extreme violence. I saw Goldberg recently on Dennis Miller Liveand he seems like such a decent, normal guy, as I’m sure most of the pro wrestlers are. The kind of guy I’d like to have as my next-door neighbor.
I thought, even when I was a kid, that wrestling was dumb. Once in a while, while flipping through the dials, I would find something to laugh at (not with) but that was the extent of it.
Wrestling today has gotten more extreme, and I like it even less.
I saw ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) live in raleigh (the record company i work for put out an ECW-themed album) and the sight of seven year olds screaming “Fuck you!” while their daddies looked on upsat thet their son used the word fuck only once in a sentance (“You can do better than that, boy!”) was a shocker…
I listened carefully, and I swore I heard Nero rosining up his bow…
That said, I went to a local wresting league here in the Carolinas at the request of a friend. Southern Championship Wrestling it is called. They met in a corwded, tiny little bar. It was totally kitschy in a humorous way. Such as:
Wrestlers kill each other at the same time. Both are laying motionless. Suddenly someone comes in the ropes, drags one prone body on top of the other, the ref counts the one on the bottom out as being pinned!
Ref gets in the ring. The other ref is like, “It’s my turn.” The forst ref is like, “No it’s not, it’s my turn!” Next thing you know, they’re wrestling it out.
Plus, at this level, they all seemed to care more about wrestling moves as opposed to hitting someone with a chair. Believe it or not, there is an art to it.
Plus, without TV’s sensationalistic pitches designed to get young’uns, SCW’s crowd was college kids and above. Despite that, it was far less confrontational than the counterparts.
All I know is if I had a kid who started screaming “Suck it!” I would have to think about moderating his TV habits a bit heavier.
WCW and WWF each have their own advantages. WWF has the better stories, and better-looking “entertainers”, while WCW has the better wrestling action, as well as the names you remember from your childhood, like Hogan, Savage, etc.
One more thing: with the handful of wrestling fans on this thread, why have I not seen the letters ECW? It combines the best of WCW and WWF, with seemingly more realistic “extreme” spots. Check it out on TNN (Friday at 8PM) or at www.ecwwrestling.com , if you’ve never seen it. That is where the other two get their better talent.
I know, a blatant plug, but they need the ratings
“Of course, that’s just my opinion; I could be wrong.”–Dennis Miller
You would think all parents would too…but apparently not. Ted learned that choice move * at school!*
He has never watched wrestling (in my home), and none of his little friends watch it, but ALL the young boys in his school do it as a manner of greeting.(All is used as a sarcastic commentary about the popularity of this)
Honestly, if I hadnt seen 20/20 or dateline the night before (when he was in bed) about kids doing that at schools out west…well, I might have really hurt him.
I was never so offended in my life, and if I hadnt known where he got it, and that he didnt really know what it meant, I would have knocked his head clear off his shoulders. Instead, we talked about it, I told him that he would get a taste of dish soap if I ever heard it again, and I havn’t.
oh, it gets even worse…ted called some inanimate object (I forget what it was) a ‘faggot’ when he got annoyed at it (video game maybe…)
I almost died, I told him that was a very offensive and hurtful word, but its hard to know how much to tell him…I dont want him to know that some people call gay men “faggots”…or he might be tempted to call someone that. sigh parenting is hard.
Point the first “Wrestling” is what they do in the Olympics, or in Iowa. What the WCW and WWF do is “RASSLIN”.
Point the second The only wrestling worth watching on TV these days is Sumo which shows up on the Deuce every once and a while. If I want to watch overgrown lummoxes pound each other around, I’ll watch the NFL like any sane, intelligent human being.
Point the third Lest ye think I am some sort of effete snob with an animus against rasslin in general, I’ll have you know that I spent hours in my misspent youth watching “Mid-South Championship Wrestling” presided over by the inimitable Lance Russell and featuring such unforgettables as Superstar Bill Dundee, Tojo Yamamoto and Jerrytheking Lawler (whom you may remember as the rassler who whupped up on Andy Kaufman). Now that was rasslin like it orta be done. No makeup, but plenty o’ masks.
And if you don’t like what I have to say, BROTHER, I’ll see you in the PIT!!! Loser leaves town, ferevvver.
“Owls will deafen us with their incessant hooting!” W. Smithers
IMO, all the organizations (WWF, WCW, ECW) are going downhill. The best times were behind them (1996-mid 1998) and now all their shows are just plain stupid.
777: Well DUUUUUHHHHHH!!! What does that have to do with the price of rice in Alabama? Yep, a pro rassler could kick my ass. So could most professional athletes. What does that prove? That I should like the abomination that is WWF/WCW? I don’t think so.
If you read my post, you should have noticed that I actually appreciated rasslin as a kid – back in the old days, before it got so:
a) commercial
b) glitzy
c) dirty (a sport designed to appeal to 10 year old boys shouldn’t be sexually explicit)
Give me a couple of rednecks pounding each other with folding chairs in a National Guard Armory any day.
“Owls will deafen us with their incessant hooting!” W. Smithers
