2009 vs 1989

[Blade]

I was talking to my father about wrestling last night, and he told me what it was like to be a wrestling fan in 1989. So I decided to make a thread contrasting fans in 1989 with fans today. So this is done in collaboration with Mr. Blade

Fans in 1989: You couldn't get enough of the top face
Fans in 2009: You wish the top face would go away!

Fans in 1989: You were always on the edge of your seat
Fans in 2009: You start chanting "boring!" at the first sign of an overly long sleeper hold

Fans in 1989: You loved seeing a wrestler's signature moves
Fans in 2009: You think a wrestler's signature moves are the only ones he has

Fans in 1989: You watching every single wrestling promotion you could find
Fans in 2009: You watch one promotion and argue with anyone who watches a different one.

Fans in 1989: Blood in gimmick matches was so gory you could barely look
Fans in 2009: Blood in gimmick matches is hoped for

Fans in 1989: The minutes went by so slowly the day your favourite wrestling show was on tv
Fans in 2009: You can just read the spoilers, what's the big deal?

Fans in 1989: When something you disliked happened, you blamed it on the heel
Fans in 2009: When something you dislike happens you blame it on creative...

Fans in 1989: When an angle ended, you felt closure and looked forward to the next one
Fans in 2009:When an angle ends, you talk about how you would've booked it

Fans in 1989: You never wanted the current wrestlers to leave
Fans in 2009:You can't wait for the young wrestlers to be pushed

Fans in 1989: After a wrestling show, you would call your best friends to talk about it
Fans in 2009: After a wrestling show, you go online and talk to people you barely know about it.


I know this thread will probably get alot of shit, people coming in saying "But I like Cena!!" or "I don't chant boring!"
This thread is not meant to be taken seriously, it's just some fun.

I invite anyone to add their own ones if they come up with one.

 

[StInGeR-HBK]

I have to say, I agree with it all. I think it's just the evolution of wrestling though. Like captain bean said, back then people actually thought it was real, now everyone knows it's scripted. Also, back then there were territories and I think for the most part, everyone respected the other territories. Now you only have a couple of choices to choose from and really only two that are on TV, 3 if you count ROH. So, it's different but I think as time goes by, it will change again. Maybe for the worse, maybe for the better. Maybe in 20 or 30 years, we'll be writing another thread comparing 2009 to 2039.

 

[finneycom1]

I love this thread!! Even though I agree with the above post that this how wrestling has evolved, I think we have so much more nowadays that take alot of the fun out of wrestling. This may sound hypocritical since I am posting on a wrestling site, but I do feel the Internet has taken alot from wrestling. For awhile, after I had discovered Wrestlezone(about '99), I was a guy who got on here who loved spoilers and read every backstage rumor that I could. However, I have realized that this has taken some of the fun out of things. Now, I avoid spoilers and take every rumor that I read with a grain of salt.

Trust me, being a wrestling fan for 20 years, I will say that the overall enjoyment I had in '89 is ten-fold to what I have today. Granted, I was 10 years old then, but I look at the overall picture and I think everyone enjoyed it more. But, I am still a fan and still enjoy watching wrestling Monday, Thursday, and Friday nights.

 

[sam_k7]

i just think that the standards were set abit to high for today’s wrestlers. No disrespect to them but i cannot see orton or cena making kids go nuts the way guys like the rock and austin could (e.g. Backlash 2000 - i actually had a fit when I heard the glass smash).

I also blame the way wrestling is going back to its silly gimmicks e.g. cena - wigga, santino - a silly ******** who dresses as a girl now, Haas - copies other peoples shit gimmicks.
Truly great wrestlers rely on their pure carisma and in-ring ability.
(all this doesn’t include taker as that is a very well done gimmick)

 

[mr.davidson]

I Agree with what everyone has said..... its 2 bad as times change programs have to change with them... I dont think the WWE would get away with the stroy lines they had back then with all the spoilers and internet blogs that go on now....

Could you imagine that everyone back then would have known that andre was going 2 be body slammed by hogan.. and that he was putting over hogan because he was just getting to old and bent out of shape....

or what people would of thought of that match had they known that Hogan puked on his way to the ring that night cause he didnt know what andre was going to do...lol

Just saying it would have been funny with the story lines back then to have all the spoilers we do 2day lol......

Oh well with time comes change and WWE has lasted this long cause they change with the times......

when people dont change with the times they get left behind....(AWA... NWA and so on...)

 

[StInGeR-HBK]

I want to add a little more to what the previous couple of posts said. I have to agree with the statement about the internet in a way. I think on one side, it does spoil some of the fun out of wrestling like knowing what's gonna happen beforehand. But to me, it has also opened a lot of doors I didn't know before. Before I started looking at wrestlezone, I had no idea of such things like the kliq, finger poke of doom, and things like that. I apologize to Blade cuz I know he said this thread was supposed to be just fun and not taken seriously but oh well! lol! Like I said before, wrestling will continue to evolve. Some gimmicks that worked in 89 will not work now and vice versa. You will never have wrestling without gimmicks. If that's the case, then you're just watching sports and not sports entertainment. Granted, some gimmicks are stupid like Santina for example. But some do work like Taker's who's stood the test of time.

 

[sam_k7]

You will never have wrestling without gimmicks. If that's the case, then you're just watching sports and not sports entertainment. Granted, some gimmicks are stupid like Santina for example. But some do work like Taker's who's stood the test of time.

I totally agree, however the top card isnt gunna have a clown or Tarzan or internet blogger in it
the flairs, hogans, rock and austins wer just the good guys that were what we all wanted to be when we grow up; strong adored by everyone and apart from when evil forces interfered, winners (I’m still waiting)

 

[miroa12004]

What about a 1999 vs 2009 , I was born in 1990 and therfore wasnot still there in 1989 so I will make a 1999 vs 2009 instead and see what the differences are:
1999:You cheered for whoever badass wrestler you think whether he was a face or heel
2009:You can't stand how good the faces are, and how cowardly the heels are.

1999:Crowd goes nuts whenever a theme music hits
2009:Crowd goes nuts for main event faces

1999:You brought whatever sign you wrote to the arena with you knowing the WWE respets freedom of speech and won't do anything to you if your sign even mentioned the competition.
2009:If your sign didn't like the WWE, it'll get confisticated

1999:You see thousands of middle fingers when the top face enters
2009:You can see bitches and stupid kids doing five knuckle shuffles when the top face enters

1999:You can switch the channel when you think the show isnot good
2009:The only thing you can do when the show sucks is to Go to sleep

1999:Rock vs HHH could've been done 1000 times yet still every feud of them was new to us.
2009:Feuds become boring to death even if its the first time they have been done (Hardy vs Hardy- booking the feud towards wrestlemania was awful- not the Hardyz fault though)

1999:The Undercard title meant something
2009:The undercard titles are like toys

1999ivas were so hot, and were allowed to show their bodies
2009ivas are hot but not allowed to show their bodies(aside from some rare bikini contests)

1999:Matches were so intense even if the feud wasnot based on a personal issue.
2009:Matches look so boring even when the feud is built on supposdly one man knocking the other's family out.

1999:Fans kept a match between Viscera and Val Venis alive by their reaction to every move
2009:Fans sleep during the main event of WrestleMania

1999:99% of PPVs worthed watching and yet they were cheap
2009PVs are so expensive when 99% of them are DUD PPVs.

1999:You don't stop counting the hours waiting for any wrestling show to start, and you act to every match as if your cousin was the one who was wrestling
2009:You just flip through the channels, find RAW, and say,"OH its RAW lets see if something new happened from last month." and you find how uterly boring the show was you tell yourself "DAMMIT, I wasted two hours of my life when I had the chance to watch a movie." and promise yourself not to watch that crap again.

1999:You got excited when they announce a new show "SD" will start airing
2009:You just cry when you know that the WWE thinks of doing a new show.

1999:Blood in gimmick matches was so gory you could barely look
2009:Blood in gimmick matches is hoped for(taken from Blade)

thats just some of the things that came to my mind when writing this, this also explains how angry I am with the current product and wish that they realize how bad their product became.

 

[RVDgurl]

You know, there are not very many posters on this board that can say they were fans in 1989. Being that I'm an old lady, I was 10 years old back in '89 and I was a huge wrestling fan. I smiled the entire while reading Blade's list because I can't believe how accurate it is. Things have changed so much over the past 20 years and sometimes I don't remember just how much until I read a thread like this one.

 

[evilshizno]

i agree with everything that miroa had to say in the 99 to 09 comparison........its really just a bummer now a days watching wrestling as an adult,i still watch every wwe show and tna impact every week to this day but compared to what i got to watch as a kid it sucks so much ass.but being the die hard wrestling fan that i am i will still watch and hope for the times to get better like they used to be,and maybe just maybe one day john cena will be nothing more than an annoying memory in wrestling.

 

[supersayian]

yeah I agree things have really changed. you cheered for whoever you thought was the rule breaker or the smart ass. you were against the ass kissers. you always wanted those memories big time stunts you would never forget.
Now you have all Gimmicks overused and made with less and less time to make them look good with one big move. NO that ruins matches. me myself likes how wrestling use to be when we cheered the faces or did not have spoilers or have lame storylines. we never knew what tio expect on T.V. I do blame the internet for almost all this. Technology is so advancing now that wrestling will not be able to survive without proper moves. they have to keep everything on the down low with very few people so it does not get leaked to the internet.

 

[TheBrianKendrick]

This is just a thought I had while reading the previous posts. While there's a lot of truth in what's been said I can't help but think that both the 89/09 and 99/09 comparisons were not of a regular 89/99 mark Vs a 09 mark but a comparison of a 89/99 mark Vs a 09 "smark". Granted in my opinion 89/99 era's of wrestling offered much more to the viewers than today's product and both would of been exciting times to be a mark or a smark but I imagine it would still be an enjoyable show for the younger kids who watch today.

The reason I believe this is because as a bit of a "smark" myself, even though I don't know everything in the process of putting on a card or a match but enough to struggle to be drawn in if the show is boring(Raw). I believe this comes from me being spoiled by the attitude era with the likes of Austin, Rocky, Goldberg and great midcarders like Eddie, Benoit and Y2J putting on compelling matches with exciting storylines. Now put yourself in the shoes of a 10 0r 12 year old kid today who can only imagine how great the attitude era and golden era of wrestling was and see if he cares that he's only got a second rate Hulkster like Cena (no offence to his fans) or a seconded rate Warrior wannabe like Batista (don't care if I cause offence with that one). He wouldn't care because he has nothing to compare it to. No doubt his just excited when he heres the opening not of Cenas entrance as I was to Glass shatters.

My point is yes wrestlings pretty crap right now but if all I have to compare crap to is more crap than craps allright by me. Herin lies the problem because the product will and has become stagnate because WWE still sell all the merch and get decent buyrates because of the younger group of fans who love to buy crap, us older generation who got attitude or golden era no longer matter as much, hence we are no longer catered for. No suprise then that WWE has gone PG eh?

So until things pick up lets all get used to eating crap.