WWE Wrestling & Hip-Hop

[CM Steel]

Less than 24 hours away the WWE celebrates the RAW 1000 episode on Monday. Me & a lady friend was watching "VH1's Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta". And it had me thinking.

Remember Raw during the 1990's when all of wrestling was living in a different thread of era? About when the "Monday Night Wars" between the then WWF & WCW really jumped off. It was the wrestling veterans that led the charge for wrestling to start a revolution coming out of the epic Hulk Hogan era of the early 90's. Around that same time & era in Hip-Hop, was becoming more edgy in it's self. In comparing both in such sence.

-The Monday Night Wars>The East Coast-West Coast rap war

-Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels>Tupac vs Biggie

-The Montreal Screwjob>The Tupac Shakur set up in NYC (or even the murder)

-D Generation-X invading WCW Ntiro>The 1995 Source Awards

I could keep listing. But in today's modern era in WWE Wrestling & Hip-Hop. They has become former shells of they'll former self's to many. We are living in the WWE "PG" era that was intended for the WWE "youth movement" (Miz, Swagger, Ziggler, Rhodes), but failed. And in Hip-Hop, "bubble gum rap" (Li'l Wayne, Drake, Kanye, Rick Ross) which is steps down from what it use to be.

The WWE vets in guys like HBK, HHH, Undertaker, and Jericho has lead by example in bringing out the best in matches with the younger talent. As well as showing them how to cut a decent promo. But with the WWE coming to "an end of an era" with those veterans. It's going to be those certain one's that have to fill the role for the WWE and all wrestling to move more forward into it's future. The same thing can be said for Hip-Hop. Guys like Cena, Orton, Punk, and the Big Show are always going to be there on top of the card. But culture wise both Wrestling & Hip-Hop has changed from that shock value format that it once brought to our TV's and radio's.

What do you think?

 

[Mongoose McQueen]

I agree, btw your bad grammar makes it hard to read this. Anyways, yeah it seems as if today's WWE is like today's music in general, not what it used to be. Mainly down to the fact the WWE talent recruitment seems to have fallen flat in the past couple years. They have not done the best job in the world to recruit talent.

Jokes like at the Miz for example, is a prime example of what the WWE have done. Another example is keeping idiots like jack swagger, who is just not good. The current new generation of superstars is being led by John Cena, Orton, punk, Sheamus etc...but they don't really have top heels.

WWE don't have any tough heels, they are mostly cowards who run away or heels that get cheered, Dolphin Ziggler for example. Del Rio is the only tough and aggressive heel that they have. They don't have heels that makes me want to hate them these days. It's all about the faces being on top.

 

[Deviancy]

The WWE surprised me back then, their writers actually were keeping up with what was hip at the time.

The rap thing is a good comparison but I'm reminded of the Ministry and how the writers seemed to realize the vampire thing and Manson were white hot with the teens at the time, and totally capitalized on it with the Ministry. And Stone Cold, well the whole PC police thing was starting to annoy a lot of people and he seemed to be a their way of giving all of overly anal PC type the finger.

But well...

Those days are probably gone forever and although part of it is probably due to Linda running senate, its also because there's no serious competition. Vince brought out the big guns to win a war but that war is over, and unless some other company manages to be serious competition, those big guns wont come out again.

 

[mb47]

Firstly I want to comment on the hip-hop side of this...OP you're an idiot and know nothing about current hip-hop. I agree there is "bubblegum" rap currently around but go listen to Tech N9ne, Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T and Aesop Rock among others then say the same. (Sorry for that side-note vent, I just can't stand wanna-be hip-hop fans who only know radio shit! Oh and Kanye West is a genius production wise!)

On to wrestling...

Yes it has gone downhill but that's only as times have changed. Many bigger more developed countries have a lot of attention on what they do and with all trying to reach out to "common families" more that means a lot of what gets shown on TV or heard on the radio has to be more "child friendly". This is where both music, wrestling and many other things have got worse.

If you grew up in the 80s, hell maybe even the early 90s things were different. There was more of an edge to things. This has just continued to develop. See back then when TV got bigger and more channels came about ratings wars started to develop and this is where "entertainment" became more of a key value. In the beginning it was easier as things hadn't been done so replication was not a problem for companies putting on TV shows. However as the expansion grew so did the amounts of unique ideas being used. This left only "edgier" material or to re-use something your company or another has done.

Now the problem with this having gone on so long and with it being ever expanding then what will happen is what has. Ideas run out and with only "edgier" material being original and unique it leaves hard choices. Do companies push boundries only to receive complaints because Edge and Lita have a "live sex show"? Or do they do the opposite and re-use an over-done storyline? The washing down is purely so they seem more accessible to all. Parents don't want there kids seeing someone busted open like Eddie in the match with JBL, real or blade-job. They also don't want there kids to not respect women or women not respect themselves.

As adults we can understand right and wrong, we get real and fake, children don't. Bubblegum rap and PG wrestling is due to boundries having been pushed to limits too quickly. If WWE wants to do something to boost ratings then forget the kids, make wrestling an adult based show. But then again as I said we're in an entertainment world, how many fully grown men are going to openly say they watch wrestling without feeling like an "ego" is damaged.

It's not WWE's fault, it's not rappers faults for what's happened. It is all of us, the viewers, fault as we couldn't turn off the TV or radio more and go do something else. We cause the expansion of shows to happen at a rapid pace and now we'll suffer for it. Wrestling, hip-hop, entertainment in general will not and CANNOT be the same again.

 

[theBec2101]

I don’t really get how you even began to compare hip hop to the Monday Night Wars. I mean yes WCW and WWE didn’t like each other but I am pretty sure it wasn’t as deadly.
I think you only listen to hip-hop on BET or MTV now. There are still serious problems with people in hip-hop with each other. They just don’t air it anymore so no one knows about it and not to hype the situation anymore then what it is. But if you get a chance you should look up Dj’s like Green Lantern or P-Cutta and you would know it out there and it far more real. . Incase, you didn’t know the Game just beat the shit out of another rapper and had his boys stick ‘em up with guns so he wouldn’t fight back.
So you are trying to compare this to WWE.

 

[Airehk]

I personally think OP's reading a little too far into this. But with these connections, there is some sort of truth to it all.

From what I gather, WWE — or the world of wrestling for that matter — has not achieved that large form of success until the "Rock n' Wrestling" era. When it all started to stray away from the mid-40's chubby generic wrestlers and the attitudes started to shine in Flair, Hogan or Sting. As the new wave of grunge rock came in, the attitudes got grittier in the likes of HBK, Hart, Triple H and Austin. This sailed very well as not only was it congruent with the current music styles, it was fresh and shocking TV (arguably stolen from ECW). This was how it was though.

As the days of Korn, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot evolved into Eminem, Hip-Hop took over. Gritty "rock" attitudes was no longer relevant. The wrestling world following this trend decides to enter Cena. But not everyone can be Cena, so WWE stuck to some roots and mixed things up. Wrestling lost its way and is now its own entity. Trying to stick to music now is a lost cause because WWE is trying to appeal to kids with Cena — who isn't a rapper anymore — but try and keep the dedicated "older" fans. To balance this out we get things like the OP said "bubble gum hip hop" with FloRida and Little Wayne. It just doesn't work.

Things are too mixed up, trying to stay current, keeping the kids mixed with hip hop, but also pulling a WCW with Triple H, Rock, Jericho and Lesnar in the spotlight then just throwing in the attitudes of Hip Hop that is popular — expect a Skrillex character soon — that is just a mess. So much so, I'm lost in my own explanation.

I think where music is going now, there is more legitimacy. I'm seeing that Hopsin is getting a nice following in the styles of being "real". Punk pulled this off and he's huge. Probably the most real guy in the locker room. WWE needs to understand, this works. We don't need another generic Samoan, Russian or any other BS they pop out that insults the viewers intelligence. Keep it real, and fans will be happy.

 

[asiatic7]

Firstly I want to comment on the hip-hop side of this...OP you're an idiot and know nothing about current hip-hop. I agree there is "bubblegum" rap currently around but go listen to Tech N9ne, Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T and Aesop Rock among others then say the same. (Sorry for that side-note vent, I just can't stand wanna-be hip-hop fans who only know radio shit! Oh and Kanye West is a genius production wise!).

Damn, all the OP tried to do was start a fun conversation and everybody wants to insult and attack him. I get what he's saying and I get why he used mainstream artist. Those mainstream artist and WWE were a part of pop culture at the time. He could'nt use name like Tech N9ne, Krit and so forth because they're not that big yet. Maybe that's who you listen to but not millions of people world wide. I like Immortal Technique, Dead Prez, Sean Price and Talib Kweli but I'm smart enough to know that they are not apart of pop culture and every genre of entertainment has and underground following. That is what ROH, Dragon Gate and other small wrestling companies are to WWE right now.

I think the OP was clever in his assessment of the similarities between 90's wrestling and hip hop. There were a lot of things similar that I agree with and as pointed out before by another poster, everything in pop culture has been diluted and so simple minded and nobody is using sheer talent anymore. Music sucks unless you like underground stuff and WWE can be cartoonish from time to time. Some prefer ROH for wrestling enjoyment.

In closing Wrestling and Hip Hop is not even a shell of what it was in the 90's. Gotta go back to the underground!