Saw Raw in Toronto last night

[Zeus]

.....zzzzz....sorry, fell asleep for a minute there recalling the show.

Wrestling is boring now. It's more than me not up to date on the characters. They actual wrestling part is no good. No one seems to wanna do anything that may injure them. I don't even mean the super hi-flying stuff, there's just nothing anymore. The most "intense" thing anyone does is jump off the top rope anymore.

And man, has there ever been a drop off in mic skills. None of these guys even hold a candle to the promos guys used to cut even 5 years ago. That's such a huge part of wrestling and it's not particularly good anymore.

I think I'm all but done with wrestling now. Thank God I was in a box last night with free food and drinks and a cute hostess that didn't have much to do and wanted to talk all night.

[Blotus]

Yeah, it's rubbish whenever I've seen it in the last year. TNA's more entertaining (although I don't watch that often either).

What's totally more exciting is that I met John Cleese this weekend at the Superstore.

[Nev]

I never watched wrestling. Why watch fake fights? But I agree - MMA may but the nails in that particular coffin for good.

I was reading about the league Hulk Hogan tried to get heavily involved in as a manager, I forget the name. The "Fingerpoke of Death" - the part where one of his big names got pissed about a scripted loss he was supposed to take, and took a fall after getting poked in the chest - seemed to be a pretty good example of what's wrong with wrestling. Big egos, refusals to fight - I mean, come on now. It's your effing *job*, and if you're a wrestler you ought to be thankful you can even work as someone who pretends to beat other people up and talks trash for a living. I sympathized with Hulk (who is actually a real showman and had that rare ability to actually work the crowd, boost the sport, and enjoy himself at the same time), but there's just no reason to watch it anymore when real MMA fighters are doing real fights, with real excitement, and real athleticism.

I never watched wrestling past the age of about eleven, but even if I were tempted to, now, I'd probably just want to wait until Wednesday Night Fights and watch Cung Le do takedowns from fifteen different angles instead. That guy is awesome.

[Zeus]

It was very entertaining when they first took the veil off and said "we're entertainment, not a sport". Throughout the 80s it was the exact opposite. But after that, they had fun with it and were very inventive. They had to be, they had to deal with WCW taking away all their stars.

When that was going it, wrestling was tons of fun and was never more entertaining to watch. But now, they've lost the edge and need another jolt to get it back.

I don't care if it's fake, it's entertaining when it's good. Just right now, it's not

[Nev]

The 80's was the only time I even halfway liked wrestling. Partially because I didn't know it was fake for half of it, and for the rest, the characters didn't seem to take themselves that seriously. Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Ted DiBiase? It was quite hard to take these guys seriously (Rowdy Roddy Piper wore a kilt if I remember right), so I kind of treated the whole thing like a big live-action cartoon and semi-enjoyed it.

I lost interest when the characters moved away from good jovial fun and started getting "dark" - N.W.O., "Hollywood" Hogan. I remember one "fight" where they had Papa Chango pretend to cast a voodoo curse on The Ultimate Warrior, and UW had to puke backstage or whatever, and I was like "This is disturbing, also it is not wrestling." Past that, wrestling just deteriorated, and now I'd just about do anything other than watch it.

[M'k'n'zy]

I got to go to Judgement Day here in St. Louis. Some of the wrestlers out there still do a lot of the high risk stuff, most notably the Hardy Brothers. Undertaker still does a bunch of crazy shit as well, as well as Finlay. Overall the pay-per-views tend to be better than the regular events, but that is kinda to be expected. I recomend that you give Wrestlemania 23 a download and check it out. the Money in the Bank match was good, Chris Benoit vs. MVP was really good, and so was Undertaker vs. Batista.

[SineSwiper]

Heh, if you want some actual high-risk shit, go to a ICW show. I don't watch wrestling, and I was practically dragged to this show, but I enjoyed it. From throwing people at 12" high on a table to the bloody matches with nail bats, glass, and the "make and bring your own weapon to the match" deal, it was a pretty entertaining affair.

Now, I still think that MMA has pretty much replaced wrestling, but at least this was a helluva lot better than WCW/WWF/etc.

[Zeus]

Heh, if you want some actual high-risk shit, go to a ICW show. I don't watch wrestling, and I was practically dragged to this show, but I enjoyed it. From throwing people at 12" high on a table to the bloody matches with nail bats, glass, and the "make and bring your own weapon to the match" deal, it was a pretty entertaining affair.

Now, I still think that MMA has pretty much replaced wrestling, but at least this was a helluva lot better than WCW/WWF/etc.

MMA replaced boxing more than wrestling. Wrasslin' goes through cycles traditionally and we're in a bad one right now. Not sure if they're really gonna recover from it though, so MMA right have replaced both.

[M'k'n'zy]

I guess we will have to see. I defidently enjoy WWE much more than the new TNA stuff when it comes to wrestling. I dont know why, because I have to admit that TNA has some stupendous wrestlers, but I just cant get into it. Mabye its the 6 sided ring, or mabye its just the pacing of the matches, but it just doesnt work for me.

[Zeus]

I guess we will have to see. I defidently enjoy WWE much more than the new TNA stuff when it comes to wrestling. I dont know why, because I have to admit that TNA has some stupendous wrestlers, but I just cant get into it. Mabye its the 6 sided ring, or mabye its just the pacing of the matches, but it just doesnt work for me.

Pacing really is a big problem nowadays in all wrasslin'. I think it's due to the fact a lot of the wrestlers don't have to work as hard to get there and their skills aren't up to snuff of the old guys. When a 60 year old Ric Flair is still one of the best wrestlers, it's a problem.

I'm going with our overlord on this one, I think independant wrestling is the way to go now.

[M'k'n'zy]

I dont know for sure, there are some good wrestlers among the new crop here and there, and the good ones are the ones that tend to last.