Justin LaBar is what is hurting wrestling
- Thread starter DirtyJosé
- Start date
justinsayne
Cody Rhodes is an excellant
I remember this! Almost as big a train wreck as Konnan's run as a "WZ exclusive"The Butcher
ð¶
Their alumni page looks pretty inflated. By alumni they must mean 'people who visitedonce & never came back'.
It's legit. Bruno Sammartino is a 3-time IWC Champion, and Los Guerreros have held the tag titles for 11 years, despite Eddie being deceased for the bulk of that period.
Reflection
is a happier and wiser man
DirtyJosé;4959731 said:
No. This isn't a Bruce Willis film.
Sounds like you. Him a name-dropper, you a no-good loser, both arrogant and incompetent. You should talk to each other and become friends.
The Butcher
ð¶
It wouldn't work. Name-droppers and losers are incompatible. The name-dropper feels he has nothing to gain by befriending the loser, and even if he tried, the loser wouldn't be able to resist the urge to punch the name-dropper for long. No, Smark, that scenario would just spell trouble for LaB...
Hey nightmare you should become friends with LaBar.
Reflection
is a happier and wiser man
On the negative side, we will then have someone aggressively defending LaBar here, like Mike Killam defends Vince Russo in his weekly entries.
Dan Severn's Moustache
Patent Pending
It's insulting that LaBar and Isenberg get paid for this stuff and many others who would make far better wrestling journalists on this forum alone are not given the opportunity.
The Holy One
What's really good?
DirtyJosé
Best angle of all: retirement
Apparently Smark has forgotten, or is ignorant (big surprise there) that this is a thing that has and continues to happen occasionaly. Clearly, like always, you have no clue what the fuck you are talking about.
Pay Per Ghost
What they f*ck happened in the thread section here
JGlass will find you, and flame you.
Your attempts at insults are just as lame as your comedy. Good to know you are consistently shit across the board.
JohnJohnson
aka JuanJuanson
I think what is really hurting pro wrestling is the fact that there is one big company in the U.S. that no one can compete with, but they are more focused on everything not wrestling, whether it be movies, scoial media, sponsorships, charities, guest hosts, brightly colored merchandise, or anything else that doesn't have anything to do with the show. Where once upon a time, we had a 2 hour long action/drama packed show full of stories and reasonable feuds that had great commentary to get it over, we now have a slow paced regurgitation of the same recycled matches that occur for no logical reason with distracting shameless plugs for commentary. Instead of wrestlers doing what they do best and become larger than life superstars, the have to come out and use social media and crappy movies to try to tell you they are stars.
Another thing, and this might make me come off as a Cena hater, but I can't think of a single other time, where the top baby face of the company was consistently booed by half the audience(and in many arena more than half) for being stale or doing the same old shit, yet nothing is done to correct it. We see Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt get tremendous reaction from crowds, only to have Cena come out and do the same old shit and win the championship for the 15th time.
Wrestling got big by being wrestling. They went out and did what they do best. Sponsors came to them, TV Networks aired their programming, they became huge. They were in the driver's seat. You aren't in the driver's seat anymore, when you have to cater your product to sponsors, when you have to have these full bottles of Mountain Dew for every commentator, and when you have to walk on egg shells with every segment. They can't turn Cena heel because of all the charities, sponsorships and merch sales. A wrestling promotion should never put itself into a situation where they can't create a more entertaining show by changing any character they please just because of all of the outside influences. WWE still has a large fan base, because there are a lot of us die hard wrestling fans. We will watch it regardless. Yes, I sat through an entire episode that was hosted by the muppets. Yes, I sat there and watched a muppet interfere in a match. Because I will always watch wrestling. But it's hard for me to legitimize this passion to anyone who isn't a hardcore fan of wrestling, because they see a bunch of watered down corny BS and can see much better stuff in the same category elsewhere.
There are also a lot of things that might seem awesome to wrestling fans, like us, but are pretty lame when looked at from an outside perspective For instance, Chris Jericho making a return is a big deal, and him wrestling makes for a pretty big deal of a match. Well obviously this is because we are familiar with his body of work and know that he is a big name and can put on some good matches. But from an outsider's perspective, they just see some random stranger in a light up jacket. Undertaker can make an appearance, and that would be the main event. Just a simple appearance to call someone out. We would all tune in for that, the whole crowd will mark out. But from an outsider's perspective, they might have heard the name, but they will see an old guy in tights and eyeliner just talking. Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, Bret Hart the obligatory Sgt Slaughter appearances. Those are big moments for wrestling fans, but they really don't do anything that is out of the ordinary to an outsider's point of view. WWE has consistently relied on these types of things to pull in fans and create a big match feel, but it just doesn't work for bringing in new customers. There are some names like The Rock, Austin and Hogan that people will recognize. But when Hogan comes out does he do anything that would make an outsider mark out? The Rock does some pretty funny things that fans of his movies could laugh about, but do you think they would legit be interested in him feuding with a CM Punk, who is practically a no name in the main stream world. Austin can come back and people might recognize him, but the problem is that anything he does is, at best, a watered down version of what he used to do. So they rely on things that are only big deals to an almost captive audience. There was a time, where any person unfamiliar with wrestling could sit down, watch one episode of Raw, and be hooked. The would be interested in the feuds going on, because the feuds got over through commentary and backstage segments. You could watch any episode of Raw and major events took place to escalate the feud. Nowadays, good luck on trying to get an outsider to sit through an entire episode of Raw.
That's just my 2 cents on what is hurting WWE and thus pro wrestling.
Another thing, and this might make me come off as a Cena hater, but I can't think of a single other time, where the top baby face of the company was consistently booed by half the audience(and in many arena more than half) for being stale or doing the same old shit, yet nothing is done to correct it. We see Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt get tremendous reaction from crowds, only to have Cena come out and do the same old shit and win the championship for the 15th time.
Wrestling got big by being wrestling. They went out and did what they do best. Sponsors came to them, TV Networks aired their programming, they became huge. They were in the driver's seat. You aren't in the driver's seat anymore, when you have to cater your product to sponsors, when you have to have these full bottles of Mountain Dew for every commentator, and when you have to walk on egg shells with every segment. They can't turn Cena heel because of all the charities, sponsorships and merch sales. A wrestling promotion should never put itself into a situation where they can't create a more entertaining show by changing any character they please just because of all of the outside influences. WWE still has a large fan base, because there are a lot of us die hard wrestling fans. We will watch it regardless. Yes, I sat through an entire episode that was hosted by the muppets. Yes, I sat there and watched a muppet interfere in a match. Because I will always watch wrestling. But it's hard for me to legitimize this passion to anyone who isn't a hardcore fan of wrestling, because they see a bunch of watered down corny BS and can see much better stuff in the same category elsewhere.
There are also a lot of things that might seem awesome to wrestling fans, like us, but are pretty lame when looked at from an outside perspective For instance, Chris Jericho making a return is a big deal, and him wrestling makes for a pretty big deal of a match. Well obviously this is because we are familiar with his body of work and know that he is a big name and can put on some good matches. But from an outsider's perspective, they just see some random stranger in a light up jacket. Undertaker can make an appearance, and that would be the main event. Just a simple appearance to call someone out. We would all tune in for that, the whole crowd will mark out. But from an outsider's perspective, they might have heard the name, but they will see an old guy in tights and eyeliner just talking. Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, Bret Hart the obligatory Sgt Slaughter appearances. Those are big moments for wrestling fans, but they really don't do anything that is out of the ordinary to an outsider's point of view. WWE has consistently relied on these types of things to pull in fans and create a big match feel, but it just doesn't work for bringing in new customers. There are some names like The Rock, Austin and Hogan that people will recognize. But when Hogan comes out does he do anything that would make an outsider mark out? The Rock does some pretty funny things that fans of his movies could laugh about, but do you think they would legit be interested in him feuding with a CM Punk, who is practically a no name in the main stream world. Austin can come back and people might recognize him, but the problem is that anything he does is, at best, a watered down version of what he used to do. So they rely on things that are only big deals to an almost captive audience. There was a time, where any person unfamiliar with wrestling could sit down, watch one episode of Raw, and be hooked. The would be interested in the feuds going on, because the feuds got over through commentary and backstage segments. You could watch any episode of Raw and major events took place to escalate the feud. Nowadays, good luck on trying to get an outsider to sit through an entire episode of Raw.
That's just my 2 cents on what is hurting WWE and thus pro wrestling.
Nate DaMac
Fuck erbody but me
No one is going to read that.
2 cents? Looks more like $50.
Good Golly It's Ollie
Magical Girl
Lol, Johnson has a point though. One can present a case that lack of competition causes WWE to rest on its laurels a bit.
Hey JJ, you should start a dirt sheet site! You're more qualified to talk about it than LaBar, since you're actually a wrestler.
JohnJohnson
aka JuanJuanson
Lol, but I don't think dirt sheets help the business as a whole. I think they do help bring exposure to certain wrestlers that aren't on the main stage, but overall, it just takes away from the business. Again, that's just my opinion.
I tried. I got as far as "I think".
JohnJohnson
aka JuanJuanson
Last week I took quite a few top rope Hurrucanranas, top rope flip bump, getting thrown out of the ring. I actually had a spot on the last show this past Saturday where I had to get thrown out of the ring. Got a pretty good reaction from people, I think. Pretty devastating spinebusters from this huge wrestler. All sorts of suplxes, I have been powerboming this one guy, but haven't taken one yet. Been working on some lucha stuff lately. Overall training has been going pretty well. Got some new students as well, so I really have to step up my game.
The problem with Cena is a lot of the reaction for Reigns/Wyatt/anybody in the past 5 years other than Bryan or Punk is simply anti-Cena heat. Take away Cena from the equation and the majority of the casual crowd really has no opinions on the wrestlers in question. Take away Cena and 90% of the discussions about wrestling is gone. Or just simply filled up by HHH hate. Fans just want to hate.
WWE got big by being crash TV during the 90s after 'being wrestling' was beginning to fade. And like all crash TV product they capture the imagination for a period of time and then nobody outside of die hards care about it anymore. The lack of competition definitely is a factor for the decline in quality 5-6 years ago. The Raw guest hosts era was definitely unwatchable for most episodes. To legitimise the passion for a non-wrestling fan, stop trying to portray it as some macho sport shit when it is fake fighting and pass it as it is; a childish programme that a child or the child in you can be entertained with.
Also WWE had to tone down a lot of stuff they did due to non-wrestling events. There was a perceived notion that WWE was encouraging violence in children. I think there was a lot of pressure from parent associations on TV stations to drop WWE programmes or push it to crappy timeslots. There was also no way WWE could enter new markets without toning down their product.
At the end of the day, I prefer my favourite wrestlers not having to resort to falling down a 16ft cage just to get a reaction. Anyway anything wrestling can come out with will seem lame to outsiders. You can't compete with pixels that feel no pain.
JohnJohnson
aka JuanJuanson
Reigns and Wyatt were hot as hell before fighting with Cena. I think that, if anything, Cena kind of slowed down their momentum. I know that I don't like them to be anti-Cena. I think people are just legitimately tired of him. Hogan would have worn just as thin if he was exposed as often as Cena. Cena has more world titles in a third of the time.
When they really began to tone it down, it wasn't anywhere near an extreme state. I wouldn't say it was toned down, it was neutered. I can understand banning chair shots to the head. It's a safety concern. But, when a wrestler accidentally starts to bleed, and they have to pause the match to clean it up, it just kills the legitimacy.
The blood thing was due to safety concerns too. Both were measures for safety concerns yet somehow one is more 'understandable'? I also think there were some contract about no bleeding for renting places for sporting events. Or something like that. Not 100% sure about the 2nd one.
Anyway work smart > work hard. There is no need to ask the wrestlers to risk their lives for a 3s pop.
