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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Wrestling 2005/2006

  
  

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Bear
09:43 / 21.12.05
Sooo….

I know we’ve had threads on THE wrestling before and seeing as I'm sitting here with nothing to do apart from read wrestling message boards (when Barbelith is quiet of course) I thought I'd see if there were any opinions on the past year in the world of HARD men and woman throwing each other around the squared circle.

I've not watched as much as I would have liked this year due to work and various others things but on the whole WWE is shit right? They seem to have totally lost it and have gone back in time to the 80's with new characters such as the Boogey Man who's supposed to be scary in a sort of kitschy funny way unlike the Undertaker who we're still meant to believe it super-supernatural other than old and not really up to the task anymore.

What else have we had this year, well there was the tragic death of Eddie who was probably one of the best wrestlers on the roster we've had a huuuuge number of terrible angles with the Hooded Terrorist awfulness, the Undertaker being killed in Eddies low-rider just weeks after Eddies actual death and most recently they have caused offence with Tim White (referee) committing suicide on PPV - nice.

It's not been bad though, there was the reunion of the Rockers, there were some great matches usually involving Beniot/Michael/HHH/Angle…

Best of all WWE ways was probably the ECW One Night Stand PPV which was a joy from start to finish with some excellent matches and some excellent semi-shoot interviews from RVD and Heyman -

Towards JBL - ""Well since you wanna shoot cowboy, I have something to say to you. The only reason you were WWE Champion for a year is because Triple H didn't wanna work Tuesdays!"

There was the sighing on CM Punk although he wont be used as he should he would have probably done much better going to ….. TNA

TNA is probably the best thing to happen to the wrestling in a long time, great roster (Christian, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Chris Daniels ummm Jeff Jarret and Road Dogg) great fans who make watching matches wrestling fun again and hardly anyway insane storylines and angles. I've just started watching Turning Point and apparently the Joe v Styles match is one of the best of year, plus it seems like things are going well for them, Spike TV is pumping money in (rumours of another big part time signing are over the net, with names such as Lesnar and Goldberg being thrown around) and house shows will start next year……

So was curious is anyway is still watching? What have you enjoyed and hated in the past year?

Oh yeah and my match of the year is tied between -

Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Tiger Emperor vs. Doug Williams, Scorpio & James Tighe
and
Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles - both of which I watched live !Go me!
 
 
Spaniel
10:05 / 21.12.05
Whilst I don't watch wrestling, I love your enthusiasm when you write about it. I also enjoy reading Paul O'Brian's blog If Destroyed, Still True, where he writes at great length on the subject. If you haven't read it before, I suggest you check it out.
 
 
Bear
10:12 / 21.12.05
That's my afternoon sorted then!

" Meanwhile, the Undertaker has tormented Orton with idiotic special effects. It's best not to think about it."

That's another strange thing they seem to be going back to at the moment, the strange overlap of fact and fiction - tv soap and wrestling show - Randy Orton is going insane due to the Undertakers MIND games seeing blood running down peoples faces the problem is we can see it too, is he crazy? Are we crazy.. I've never been a fan of the invisible camera man anyway but this is a little more than that.

I thougth for awhile that maybe I was getting too old for wrestling but TNA has restored my faith.
 
 
MacDara
14:14 / 21.12.05
I'm still watching. I've been a fan since 1990 and I'll always watch, it's in my blood. But this year has been pretty dreadful.

I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed a WWE pay-per-view (with one exception: ECW One Night Stand, which was top notch). The year's main angles have either been sorry rehashes of old storylines that didn't work before, or badly misjudged ideas that should never have made it out of the staff meeting (I refer specifically to the Eddie-Rey feud during the summer), or they were put to bed before they were spent (Edge and Matt Hardy could have gone much longer). Also, what they did to Jim Ross was unforgivable, even if they had his consent.

The WWE today is so tired, when it could easily be so vibrant. There's so much potential, especially with the brand split, but it's being constantly squandered. It's too easy to say that 'If I was writing this or booking that I'd do blah-blah-blah...' because I know that writing angles and booking matches and keeping the boys happy isn't an easy job. But I could certainly do better than they're doing now.

Aside from all that, there were some pretty good matches this year, most of them involving either Shawn Michaels or Shelton Benjamin. It's sad to see Benjamin lose his push over a couple of blown spots; there might be more to it than that, politics and whathaveyou, but if I was running things he'd be feuding with Carlito over the IC title right now and going down a storm.

I'm sure I'd have had a better year if I could see TNA, but I don't get The Wrestling Channel yet. My first real exposure was seeing AJ Styles wrestle Chris Daniels for the X Title here in Dublin back in March, which was very impressive. And with the Spike TV deal, things are really looking up. Hopefully in 2006 I'll see more.

Ditto for the indies. I'm quite taken with the idea of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (I heard of them through the Puroresu Power Hour) so I'll be getting a show or two of theirs in the new year. I also need to improve my puroresu diet; I got a couple of Osaka Pro DVDs a while back which left me wanting more.

Is there anything else I should be looking out for?
 
 
Bear
14:42 / 21.12.05
Agreed on Benjamin, although I'm sure he'll get his chance he's too good for them to waste.

The Edge/Matt thing was a weird one wasn't it, Matt had a huge amount of respect from the internet community when he left but he's sort of lost that due to going back and constantly being punished for the comments he made while he was gone, or so they say - but it really seems that way. You hear rumours of backstage politics and it sounds like a dreadful place to work. Someone was punished on the PPV on Sunday apparently for comments he made backstage, Nuzio maybe? They had him eating worms from a sack while dressed as an elf… doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs.

You get the impression that anyone could book the matches better but it's hard to say, I mean people like Paul London should be doing much more than they are but would the fans take to them? It's hard to say, it seems that people love the slow muscular guys suplexing each other for 20 minutes which is all well and good if they can tell a story with it in the ring…

I don't actually have the Wrestling Channel myself but I download quite a bit of stuff or at least I used to but I think that Sky is something I'm going to treat myself in the new year. The Wrestling Channel just announced recently that they've got the rights/permissions to show the TNA Impact shows a week after they happen which will make it much easier to follow what's going on.

I need to get into the puroresu stuff more myself, there was awhile I was watching lots of stuff from all over the world but like I said before things have been a bit crazy for me but it's something that I'm going to make an effort to get into again in the New Year - NOAH is something I'd like to watch a lot more of and some lucha. I've seen some CMLL and it's great if you like the high flying fast paced stuff.

That's why I think TNA has a bit of something for everyone, it's got the X-division if you like the fast moving 'spotfests' and hard hitting stuff like Samoa Joe… oh and the hardcore stuff if that's your bag, I watched the Sabu v Abyss match last night but I found it hard to watch seeing as it was a barbed wire instead of ropes deal and there was a lot of blading going on…. If they could just persuade Jarret to drop the title

I think I'm going to buy some of the best of Japan stuff and then decide from that who I like, there are so many sites out there with people trading/selling - Simania for example.
I had a look at the Guerrilla website and it sounds interesting too, anything with Colt Cabana is bound to be good.
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
18:41 / 22.12.05
" Meanwhile, the Undertaker has tormented Orton with idiotic special effects. It's best not to think about it."

The worst thing about this angle is that it is almost note for note the same as the Hogan/Warrior angle from WCW, including seeing the opponant in the mirror and gimmicky ring tricks. It's a bad thing when you are cribbing angles that are pure Wrestlecrap.

It's been a mixed bag for me, watching the WWE all year. The angles and writing are painfully bad, showing that if you advertise for TV writers as a wrasslin company, and don't take in people who know the business, you get writers who couldn't possibly get jobs writing for any other TV shows. Balance that with some truly great matches, and the best video crew the company has ever had, and you get shows where I fast forward through the "yak yak" and get to the matches. I think they took a HUGE stumble after they hit the USA network by bringing in Hogan, Foley and Austin and having nothing for them to do.

TNA has become the company that could...dumping their horrid baggage from their first few years, they have evolved into a new version of old-school sothern wrasslin with an emphasis on work rate. Their PPVs are ALWAYS top notch, and other than the inevitable Jeff Jarrett match at the top of the card, they deliver some of the best in-ring work I've seen in years. They keep the silly angles to a minimum, and possibly have the best angle in the past 5 years with the AJ Styles/Samoa Joe fued. They built up to it for months, and when they finally met, it was a great match, but also a great STORY.

The other good thing about the business is the advent of the WWE's DVD strength. With the three disk Ric Flair DVD doing so well, we've gotten sets of The Road Warriors, Bret Hart, Benoit and Jake Roberts that show just why these guys were considered some of the best in the business. Even when the WWE does a hatchet job (I'm talking to YOU Ultimate Warrior), the production values and match presentation is amazingly well done. I'd rather watch the DVDs than the weekly programming on WWE any day now. They've also made hints that they are moving toward a new "shoot" format with Tazz and Michael Cole, who fit that role well and are doing good work on their website shows...and even good work on Smackdown, even though the show is a weekly train wreck.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
07:23 / 26.05.06
Where the Hell is Raven? TNA? How can I find those shows? Are they any good? Comparable to ECW or old NWA?

Have caught a little WWE this year and it's really bleh. I was kind of happy seeing Mark Henry get a push just because the writers have made that guy do some silly degrading shit over the years. Not a joy to watch in the ring though.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
07:38 / 26.05.06
Ha, it looks like because of the success of the ECW pay per view and the recent dvd releases that WWE is bringing back ECW, complete with a weekly show and pay per views. Weird thing is it's going to be shown on the Sci Fi channel?! Weird.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
07:48 / 26.05.06
From Lordsofpain.net

"The standard contracts being sent out to former ECW stars for this new ECW project are one year deals with an option for two rollover years at WWE's discretion."

And it seems Sabu got a contract. And that they are also talking to a few other people.
 
 
Evil Scientist
08:17 / 26.05.06
Always nice to see Terry "we need more explosives" Funk in any capacity. But especially when he's having a bit of a barny with Foley.

Liking the ECW angle they're pushing currently. Takes me back to the days of the Invasion storyline.
 
 
Jake, Colossus of Clout
16:40 / 26.05.06
I pretty much quit watching last year because WWE got so awful. I don't buy into Orton, Batista or Cena as legitimate champs, and I'm sick to death of Triple H, whose only reason for being seems to be beaking Flair's record of 16 championships, which I think is a damn shame. I also got sick of Flair humiliating himself. I did like it when JBL was champ, though. He was a good old-school heel, and while he's not the best wrestler, he's competent, and he's a fantastic talker.

I watch the main event occasionally,if it has Benoit in it, and I watch TNA occasionally, but it seems like Jeff Jarrett has to be involved in everything, which is mind-blowingly obnoxious. He's a bit like Triple H, without the talent.

I basically watch my Flair and Benoit DVDs when I need a wrestling fix. Have things gotten any better? Is there anything worth TiVoing?
 
 
Jackie Susann
03:45 / 27.05.06
What is the ECW angle (I mean I know they're re-starting ECW), or does 'reminds me of the Invasion' adequately explain it?
 
 
Jack Denfeld
04:30 / 27.05.06
I don't think it's like Invasion. I think Vince is gonna have this as a seperate Brand, with independant storylines and their own rosters and stars. I think it would be best not to do much crossover stuff, except maybe a yearly ECW?WWE thing. They could also use this as a farming league I guess.
 
 
Evil Scientist
09:07 / 27.05.06
Oh yeah definitely. It was just the similar themes of the ECW wrestlers and presenters railing against the WWE "attitude". It's not going to be another Invasion, but it did make me all nostalgic.

Jackie, the Invasion storyline happened back in 2001 and ran over the year. Basically it was suggseted that Shane and Stephanie McMahon (at that point on the outs with Vince) had brought out the failing WCW brand and were using their WWE shares to "invade" Raw and Smackdown. Heyman was commentating at the time and brought ECW into it too. I thought it was quite fun.
 
 
Aegir
21:04 / 31.05.06
So what happened with Sky One, not showing WWE Sat mornings anymore? Seeing this thread reminds me how much I miss that - it used to send me down the gym without fail.

/hunts for the wrestling channel on NTL
 
 
Evil Scientist
12:34 / 01.06.06
It's all over on Sky Sports now.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
12:50 / 01.06.06
Yes, that was annoying. One of the main reasons I tied myself into a 12 month contract with cocking NTL was because I missed watching the wrestling on Sky 1 on a saturday morning. I then discover that they don't show it anymore. Annoying.
 
 
Jack The Bodiless
12:30 / 03.06.06
Yeah, well I'm paying through the nose for the sports channels at the moment. No broadband, so I can't download anything. Of course, since the only sport I watch is the wrestling, I'm essentially paying forty quid a month for it. Never mind.

There's still some good stuff on WWE these days if you're prepared for the WWE-house style to essentially not have changed for the last ten years, minimum. It's a hell of a lot slower and more talky than TNA or ROH - on the upside, there are actual characters and feuds you can get into, unlike in the above mentioned promotions where it's really mostly about what happens in the ring. Kurt Angle just delivered a blistering farewell match on Smackdown last night with Rey Misterio Jnr (he's going to Heyman's ECW brand). Keep wondering how long we're going to have the RAW/Smackdown brand split, bearing in mind that it seems likely that one of the two world titles will become the new ECW world title at One Night Stand next weekend (RVD vs. Cena for the WWE title, Sabu vs. Mysterio for the World Heavyweight title).

Despite being about fifty pounds heavier than when he (last) retired, Foley's on fire at the moment (even as big as he is, he wrestled a wonderful hardcore match with Edge at Wrestlemania this year, culminating in Edge spearing Foley through the ropes, off the apron and into a burning table, which of course shattered under them. I marked out like an eight-year-old), and his heel promos with a tweener Heyman are really pushing the whole ECW thing on RAW. Heyman came onto Smackdown last night to push it, and did a good job. I can see ECW taking over from Smackdown as 'the wrestling brand', which is odd considering the defunct promotion's rep as a garbage/stunt show.

No, there's a lot of good stuff around these days. You still have to fastforward through a lot of RAW, but that's been true for five years...
 
 
Jack Denfeld
14:28 / 04.06.06
Ohhhhhhhhhh snap. From Lordsofpain.com
-- Despite recent reports, there is not expected to be a major Sci-Fi influence on characters in ECW. Right now, WWE is planning to introduce only one "unusual" set of characters -- a vampire faction.
Please bring back Gangrel, please bring back Gangrel.
 
 
penitentvandal
09:11 / 06.06.06
My prayers are answeres, finally a wrestling thread on the Lith! A thread which will, hopefully, not go the way of any discussion at all on the Wrestlecrap forum:

Poster #1: So, ah, anyway, obviously the ECW thing will be a shot in the arm for the WWE, and, uh -

RandomCenaHateCrew: Yeah, because it won't have Cena!1!1!1!

ObsessedCenaLovr: stop the cena hate he is a great technical wrestler and has came from the getto and made something of himself haterrrrz

Voice of Reason: Please. No. Not. Another. Cena. Argument. Again.

Repeat ad nauseam...
 
 
Evil Scientist
10:48 / 06.06.06
It's quite pleasant to realise that, after years of being very so-so, I'm actually finding Triple H an entertaining wrestler again. Alright, he's one of the hulking brutes that Vince seems to love so much, but when he tries he can be quite impressive. This turn towards Anti-Face is working better than I was expecting it to.

The Heyman/Foley confrontation was good. They really needed to let Heyman out of the backstage more, his rant at Survivor Series in 2002 was pure art. Looking forward to Angle in ECW, he's been wasted over in Smackdown.
 
 
penitentvandal
06:18 / 07.06.06
What did anyone think of McMahon's battle with the Deity, lately? I was in two minds about it, partly because I thought the lead-up - the transparent, 'let's do the Montreal Screwjob again - but this time it's Shawn who gets screwed!' was really tasteless (especially given they were letting Bret into the HOF at the same time), but I actually marked out for the angle as soon as it turned into Vince versus God. I don't know why, I just think if you're going to have Vince on the show you may as well portray him as a crazy old man. My only concern is where he goes now that he's triumphed over Jehovah Himself...

Y'know, it occurs to me that the fact I feel more uncomfortable about the Screwjob references than the open blasphemy of Vince v Allah actually means I feel more strongly about Bret Hart than I do about God. Perhaps a double standard, there. On the other hand, though, God has definitely blown a lot more spots than Bret, in his career...
 
 
Jackie Susann
08:09 / 07.06.06
Okay, I haven't watched wrestling in maybe 5 years, but what the fuck do you mean, Vince vs God? God is an actual WWE competitor now?!
 
 
Evil Scientist
09:38 / 07.06.06
Shaun Michaels is supposed to be very into his Christianity, so Vince (in story) decided that Shaun should participate in a tag match against Vince and his son with God as his tag partner.

God was represented by a column of light.

It's just more of the same crazy, megalomaniacal Vince schtick they've been running since forever.

Still, it was a rare opportunity to watch Shane MacMahon wrestle. That guy's genuinely one of the most talented wrestlers active today, but obviously he doesn't wrestle much being as he's horribly wealthy and doesn't have to.
 
 
Jackie Susann
09:59 / 07.06.06
Wait, so did the column of light get any offence or did Vince actually have a squash match against God? Cause that is a whole other level of crazy than I remember.
 
 
Evil Scientist
10:48 / 07.06.06
Nah, it just sort of hung about in the corner and then left up the ramp as God (symbolically) abandons Shaun. It was quite obviously not supposed to actually be God rather Vince taking the piss out of Shaun.

Not a bad match though, despite the silliness. Shane did one of his flashy Leap of Faith moves.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
19:28 / 07.06.06
Wow, Shane. He used to be the best thing about pay per views. Guy was fearless, took ungodly bumps, and did amazing high spots. Like he had to be that much better because he wasn't one of the boys. Fearless.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
19:41 / 07.06.06
FUCKKKKKKKK YEAHHHHHHHH
David "Gangrel" Heath has been re-signed to a WWE deal and will be part of the new Extreme Championship Wrestling brand. Heath was also backstage at SmackDown which emanated from Bakersfield, CA a few weeks ago.

I know some people think he's a joke, but he's a good wrestler trained by Dean Malenko, and a great guy.
 
 
Jackie Susann
22:25 / 07.06.06
God would make a great heel champion. Imagine Him feuding with the Undertaker!
 
 
penitentvandal
11:44 / 10.06.06
Just checked out Wrestlecrap.com this morning, looking for my regular weekly fix of stupid angles. The site has not been updated...

...because John Tenta, the Earthquake, has died.

Tenta was a friend of RD Reynolds, the guy who runs wrestlecrap. He actually wrote the foreword to RD's book of the same name, and has given two amazing interviews to RD at the site. He also had his own section of the Official Wrestlecrap Forum in which he would answer questions from fans. He was a guy who had enjoyed his time in the business, didn't talk crap about people in his interviews, and didn't take himself too seriously. He could laugh at the silliness of things like having to be 'the Shark' in WCW or 'Golga the Human Oddity', but who also appreciated the chance he'd had to work with guys like Jake Roberts, Hogan, Warrior etc, and his run as one of the WWF tag champs with his friend Fred 'Typhoon' Ottman as one of the Natural Disasters.

For the past few years, he had been battling cancer, and kept RD and other fans on the site up to date with his progress. Clearly, this battle did not, in the end, go to John Tenta's advantage. He will be missed.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
03:57 / 13.06.06
ECW ECW ECW
  
 
Evil Scientist
14:04 / 13.06.06
Sign in the crowd read "If Cena wins, we riot."

You know what? I believed it.

The Sabu/Mysterio match was a hoot, that table snapping in the wrong place elicited a round of pained "Ooooooooh!"'s from those of us watching it last night.

Super-Crazy is a spry little fella isn't he? I hadn't caught much of him before being as he's on Smackdown.

Plus, it was nice to realise I was enjoying Taz's commentary after so many years of wondering why the hell they made him an announcer. He sounded like he was enjoying himself.

Looking forward to watching Raw tonight to find out what the deal was with Edge.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
20:20 / 13.06.06
none
 
 
Jack Denfeld
20:25 / 13.06.06
amazing sabu vs mysterio spot
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
16:17 / 17.06.06
So, new ECW show on Sci Fi?

Painful.

REALLY fuckingly painful.

I've seen better WCW shows where an Arquette was carrying a belt.

Sadly, it also got Sci Fi's best ratings in over five years, and has gotten the channel FINALLY excited about carrying the show, since they were doing it grudgingly. Hopefully it was a screw up because they were tired after running the PPV and getting all of the talent secured.

TNA, on the other hand, consistantly gives a great show every week if you fast forard through Jeff Jerrett, and is giving away PPV quality matches with the new talent every week. I loves me my old ECW but right now, I'm a TNA mark.
 
  

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