Hulk who? (WWE in General)

Member Name: gillberg

Product:	WWE in General
Date:	07/10/01 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: tits, ass

Disadvantages: dumb, too much has been revealed, no competition left

I watched wrestling for about 8 years and considered myself a loyal follower. After SummerSlam 1992 my feelings have been changing. Now I think that wrestling, not to put it too lighlty, sucks ass!

Why did my ill feeling begin in the summer of '92. Well it was to do with the Ultimate Warrior. A mad superhero if ever there was one. I wasn't a real fan of his but I wanted him to win over Savage and get back the WWF title. It wasn't to be. He jobbed to Savage due to interference from Ric Flair. It destroyed my faith in the heroes. I was still a mark at the time (jargon for someone who thinks it's real) and I didn't realise it the match went that way to get more heat (jargon- fan hatred) onto Flair.
Since then wrestling has had its ups and downs but I think right now wrestling has become a shadow of its former self.

In a way my becoming disenchanted with it is the numerous exposes over the past few years. It began with the excellent documentary Wrestling With Shadows (buy it while you still can) about Bret Hart. What began as a simple documentary about Hart became a story about angles (jargon- storylines) and being screwed over. Which we saw Vince McMahon (owner of the WWF) do to Bret at Survivor Series '97 (I think that was the year).
Bret was supposed to win the match and retain the world title but job the title to Shawn Michaels the next night on Raw. He didn't want to lose in Canada, as the Harts never lost in Canada. (For an excellent tale about this and other eighties legends read Pure Dynamite by Tom Billington aka the Dynamite Kid) Well, unkown to Hart, and I suspect Michaels the ref called for the end of the match and declared Michaels the new champion. I say unknown to Michaels because the end of the match was planned this way. Shawn has Bret in the sharpshooter (a leg hold) and Bret reverses and Shawn quits. However when Bret is put in the hold the ref (Dave Hebner, hey, the boss tells you to do some
thing you do it) calls for the bell. However Bret is seen to be reversing the hold and Shawn is going through the move with him. The look on Shawns face also tells you he knows nothing.
This planted further seeds of doubt as to the true nature of wrestling.

Now we come to the '90's. An era when the hero died and by the end of it violence ruled the air.
The birth of ECW brought a new flavour to wrestling, hollywood violence. The violence of the eighties had seen a tone down into more palatable pain. When ECW came along, it was a return to the violent and bloody seventies that the WWF had long since gone away from.
Wrestling companies copy each other. That's a simple fact, look back in history. NWO in WCW, DX in WWF. Ultimate Warrior new hero of the nineties defeats old hero of the eighties Hulk Hogan. Change the names to Sting (90) and Flair (80) in WCW and you see the great idea stolen. Well, Vince did it with ECW. He took the violence that was drawing in crowds and copied it. He crippled WCW by taking its top talent. WCW tried in vain to copy WWF and folded. Cue McMahon to take the only worthwhile competition left.

That is why I think that the WWF will die. There's no one to compete against and it's already lost its footing. You want examples, I'll give you some.
Most wrestlers now only do certain moves during a match. It's true. Watch Taji, you know the ex ECW guy who's Japanese. He'll do the Tarantula, savat kicks, the jumping elbow (nicked of Keiji Muto aka the Great Muta) and that's about it. Any one wreslter has so many special moves he alone performs and the odd interchangable ones (dropkick, clothesline, etc). The in ring action has become dull and somewhat lifeless due to the ever longer storyline.
In the old days the matches happened and there was a little bit of story. Now the story is all that matters. Character has been lost due to the need for fan cheers oor boos. Ho
w many times can Austin be a face or a heel (jargon- face, good guy and heel, bad guy) and still be a believable character.
Yes, the links were bad in the eighties but you cheered for the underdog to follow the rules and even if he lost, have his pride. Now it's anything goes. Yes the world isn't as naive to wrestling as it was but where has all the fun gone. McMahon if I want to see tits and ass I know where to look. What you are offering is woman with big tits and no brains. It is ridiculous.

I could write more about how wrestlers have been made to look fools. Look at some of the gimmicks and costumes. Now did you think these guys looked like fools? Well, that was the idea. If you messed up in a match or back stage, you were given a lame angle. I think D'Lo Brown disapeared from our screens because of his accident with Droz (he messed up on a move and dropped Droz on his neck, he's now in a wheel chair). There's numerous things that have gone on and we the fans haven't known why. Big John Studd got a huge push (jargon- make fans love/hate you) in 1989 but after winning Royal Rumble and making an appearence at Mania V he disappeared. I think it was something to do with money. The fans suffered though because there was a big build up and no pay off.
Sorry I have written more.

When Mick Foley hung up his boots, was the day wrestling died. The last real underdog hero. His story shown in Beyond the Mat shows how much wrestlers have to do to become big.

RIP wrestling.

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