The little things, What do you miss?

[tvcolosi]

I have found a bunch of podcasts reviewing old 1997-99 era WWF PPV's and they are awesome. Got me thinking, what old wrestling standbys do you miss? I do not mean "I miss the attitude era." or "I miss good storylines." I'll give 2 examples..

I miss late night syndicated programing. Shotgun Saturday night was one of my favorites. WWE has similar shows now (Superstars on .Com, Main Event) but these shows are produced for primetime network television. SSN was produced for 10:00 pm or later.

The other one is standup interviews that have more of an introduction than "please welcome, my guest at this time, John Cena." yawn... tell me why he is being interviewed. "This man has a lot on the line Sunday not just his championship, but a heck of a lot of pride." I just came up with that while typing.

What little things do you miss?

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I kind of miss the days where a confrontation would be drawn out between two guys. Those were the days of the jobber matches. Jake Roberts would head down to the ring to kick the crap out of The Brooklyn Brawler, and during the match, Rick Rude or Rick Martel would cut a promo about Jake. The net result served to move the feud forward a bit, and it would also give guys the opportunity to get used to giving promos. When's the last time you heard Kofi Kingston, for instance, cut a promo? Even while he's been in a mini feud with the Shield? It would've added something...a little more depth.

 

[thesubverse]

I miss the bell being rung over and over and over every time there's a big brawl going on. It never actually accomplished anything (who's gonna stop fighting just because a bell is ringing?), but it heightened the sense that this isn't supposed to be happening.

 

[pearljamericclapton]

This will sound odd,but i really miss the ring having the name of the ppv on it.WCW was great with there designs.Did not always do it but in 94-2001 they did it most of the time.It just made me feel like i am getting something different than Nitro or Raw.Sometimes the event seemed like Nirto bit go look at Uncensored 97.that ring was a great sight.

Its a very little thing,but i do miss that.

 

[Dave_duncan]

I have found a bunch of podcasts reviewing old 1997-99 era WWF PPV's and they are awesome. Got me thinking, what old wrestling standbys do you miss? I do not mean "I miss the attitude era." or "I miss good storylines." I'll give 2 examples..

I miss late night syndicated programing. Shotgun Saturday night was one of my favorites. WWE has similar shows now (Superstars on .Com, Main Event) but these shows are produced for primetime network television. SSN was produced for 10:00 pm or later.

The other one is standup interviews that have more of an introduction than "please welcome, my guest at this time, John Cena." yawn... tell me why he is being interviewed. "This man has a lot on the line Sunday not just his championship, but a heck of a lot of pride." I just came up with that while typing.

What little things do you miss?

What do I miss? Mainly the use of hardcore matches so end feuds etc. I thought TNA did really well to end their storm vs roode feud with a hardcore match. But more than anything I miss the genuine suprises at objects used in a match or of people debuting. Not to say there are not some supprises but I would mainly like the debutes slightly more supprising rather than it being revealed on twitter or what ever else.


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[rokuma]

This is more WWE than TNA, but I miss the commentators talking about the match at hand and treating it as a competition. The WWE usually goes on tangents about upcoming events, future matches, etc. In the old WWF days, Gorilla Monsoon, Heenan, and Ventura would talk about the strategy of the match, maybe even bring up old injuries (i.e. Ric Flair/Greg Valentine in the plane crash, etc.), and revert to previous history between the two guys. TNA doesn't accomplish this to the old school degree, but they are better about it. Tazz in particular treats it as an athletic competition and not just a stunt. The problem with Tazz is he's now part of Aces and Eights, so the focus is on that. It takes away from the match if the announcers are sitting around like my buddy and I talking about it in our living room. Other major sports call the action and talk about the strategy. Why did wrestling go away from it? Takes away some of the legitimacy of pro wrestling.

 

[bxbigshow]

I miss the IMPACT of impact moves...
For example: Jake's DDT was a finisher, it ended matches, knocked you out. Now Diva and lightweights use it all the time as a regular move...even adding springboards and tilt-a-whirls.

I miss King Kong Bundy's 5-count.

I miss a good small package win by a surprising face. And a small package with the front roll, leg tie-up...not a schoolboy.

I miss a named Manager's Stable (Heenan Family/Dangerous Alliance/York Foundation[Terri "Alexandra York" Runnels/WCW)

That's a few, if I think of more...

 

[CasualNinja]

I miss the backstage interview. Look at how many amazing promos the Rock had early in his career. The majority were done backstage. It hypes up upcoming matches. It can progress feuds. It allows for people to get attacked. It benefits so much more than what we get today. Just look at the promo the Rock cut right before his match at the Rumble and the tag match a few years ago at Survivor Series. Both of those matches I was hyped for, but the interviews just added to it. It also gives people who aren't as great on the mic, a chance to get better if they have to re-shoot something as not all of those are live.

 

[Trollol]

Chair shots to the head. Nothing said brutal quite like a chair being completely dented in across someone's head

 

[RaTeDAwEsOmE84]

I miss the divas actually being sexy on the show and making me want to cry.

 

[zhaff2004]

backstage promos are a big one. If I remember correctly, the last mania had NO backstage promos... Baffles me that a 4 hour PPV could not have a single backstage promo. The hype, the crowd, the atmosphere, the occasion, it just leant itself perfectly for an epic Rock promo ala WM X-8 or even one of Colter's rants.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Everytime I think about WCW Nitro, one of the first things about the show that always comes to mind is Mean Gene's interviews on the Nitro set. I loved the interviews on the Nitro set, they always felt more special than regular backstage interviews. I was born in 1991 so I didn't watch back then, but when I watch old WWF tapes now from around the late 80's/early 90's, even the interviews Mean Gene gave on the WWF's old interview podium feel more special than regular backstage interviews nowadays.

As stupid as it sounds, I agree with the guy that mentioned WCW imprinting their PPV names & the Nitro logo on their ring mat. The PPV/Nitro logos made the ring mat look clean and more enjoyable to look at than a regular plain ring mat.

And I also agree with the guy that said a suprising roll-up win by a face, whether it's a Small Package, Jacknife Pin or Schoolboy. Some of my favourite wins have come by roll-up pins, like Bret vs. Diesel at Survivor Series 1995, Shawn vs. HHH at Summerslam 2002, AJ vs. Joe vs. Daniels at Unbreakable 2005, and more. You never see em coming, which makes a victory all the more sweet.

 

[Nyce18]

I miss the use of jobbers. Does WWE not realize they can showcase talent and build a feud by still using jobbers? I mean, how many times are we gonna watch Orton vs Sandow wrestle on SD then again on Raw (thats just one of MAAAAANNYYYY examples) for us to really care about it by the time they have an actual "feud" put together and then meet again for the 12th time at a ppv?! I remember when jobbers would be in the ring and you would have the established guy come out and look strong against him and you would get the occasional run in or backstage promo from the other wrestler to advance the storyline instead of just throwing them in a random, non built up match. Instead, in an effort to have absolutely EVERYONE on tv every week, they put together matches just because. So one week Santino gets handled by Ziggler for example, but following week Santino beats Cesaro and Ziggler loses to Sheamus but that doesnt matter because 3 weeks before that Ziggler beat Sheamus and they will meet again on SD this friday and Santino will take his big victory against Cesaro and get squashed by Ryback while Cesaro beats the Miz whom just beat Ryback via countout. U get where im going... no consistent build for anything or anyone anymore. Matches, wins and losses dont mean diddly squat anymore. Not that they really truly ever did but WWE at least used to make it feel that way somewhat more then they do now. o btw this Monday night, Ziggler returns and faces Orton for no apparent reason (just to throw away a good future feud) but if u miss it dont worry they will meet again 6 more times on tv before the year is out!

 

[tvcolosi]

I miss the IMPACT of impact moves...
For example: Jake's DDT was a finisher, it ended matches, knocked you out. Now Diva and lightweights use it all the time as a regular move...even adding springboards and tilt-a-whirls.

I miss King Kong Bundy's 5-count.

I miss a good small package win by a surprising face. And a small package with the front roll, leg tie-up...not a schoolboy.

I miss a named Manager's Stable (Heenan Family/Dangerous Alliance/York Foundation[Terri "Alexandra York" Runnels/WCW)

That's a few, if I think of more...

I like all of those especially the moves.. but I think Honky Tonk Man once said "The most dangerous move in ECW was a roll-up. They do 25 highspots and win with a f'n school boy." Think back, he has a point. One way to fix that is have Cena win with the top rope leg drop, Punk win with the knees in the corner/Bulldog combo. Win with an alternate move once every 4-5 wins and those near falls become more exciting but when you see the AA or GTS it is O V E R over....

The 3D/Dudley Death Drop has been kicked out of 2 times, Masato Tanaka in ECW and either Sabin or Shelly in their last match as a team. I heard the Tanaka one was an accident.

 

[pthbass89]

I miss people being thrown off of the stage. It just seemed to add an element of brutality at times which helped feuds move along.

Undertaker chokeslamming Angle off of the stage during their brief feud. Jeff Hardy doing a swanton onto Randy Orton. Vince throwing Triple H off of the stage leading up to their eventual match. Mick Foley throwing Randy Orton off during their hardcore match. And of course Shane McMahon's leaps and falls to and from the stage.

Their have been instances over the last few years in which superstars have been thrown off the stage but they never had the same aggression, they were too obviously safe (I.E out of shot crash mats, steel grating which is rigged etc...).

 

[scottyshowman82]

The WWE usually goes on tangents about upcoming events, future matches, etc.

I totally agree. Jim Ross made watching WWE like reading a novel, if you were blind and watching pro wrestling you still got a hell of descriptive vivid experience. I'm sorry but it seems like the only person that doesn't want Jim Ross behind the announce booth is the one guy that matters Vince Mcmahon. Michael Cole, I give the guy credit he paid his dues and worked up the ladder but what is all this garbage we have to here about "whether this comparison was outdated or not?" Cole, JBL and Matthews argue too much. I mean Gorilla and Bobby argued too but it was funny, entertaining and had a point. Cole, JBL and Matthews agrue about things that take away from the match. They don't even complement each other the way Bobby and Gorilla did or even the way Vince and Lawler did, half the time they're tearing each other down. JBL has his moments of brilliance but all in all it's pretty horrible compared to what JR used to give us to be frank.

But ya getting back to the thread (which is an excellent idea btw)


I think I could write a book on little things that I miss but ones that pop out right hmmm.....I miss Randy Savage, man I missed Randy Savage even before is unfortunate early passing, I missed seeing that personality on TV the most, because he had been off TV for so long. RIP. Other things I miss...I miss WCW... I miss the original ECW...I miss WCW cruiserweight wrestling....I miss Sunday Night Heat...I miss WCW Saturday Night.....I miss a mature alternative hardcore to the WWE....I miss when WWE had it's back against the wall and pushed itself, in every area of the product....I miss the King of the Ring Tournment...I miss Paul London... I miss Shelton Benjamin...I miss War Games...I miss that 3 Ring 60 man battle royal WCW used to do...I miss the Natural Born Thrillers...when RVD was the whole (expletive deleted) show...Legion of Doom...Surfer Sting...Raven's flock...I miss the Nexus and Wade Barrett as a leader... and so much more I can't think of right now lol.

That being said there's a lot to be excited about in the wrestling world today and I hope we all enjoy it.

 

[SaveUsCMPunk]

I agree with the guy that said chair shots to the head. I can understand why they don't do it, but the chair shots Foley, Kane and a few others took back in the Attitude Era were fun to watch.

I miss the WWE that had quality insults. I remember when Eve called Miz a "frog-faced loser?" What kind of lame insult is that? Oh yeah, and then there's the Bellas doing the "L" sign.

I miss 2 hours Raws. I'm sorry but 3 hours is a bit much and most 3 hour Raws have been less than amazing.

I miss WWE not being obsessed with social media and the WWE App (Shut up about the damn thing already.) I don't care to read tweets on the bottom of the screen. It's distracting. Also, does anyone give a damn about seeing various members in the audience drinking one of those new Sonic shakes? Whatever happened to "This portion of Raw is brought to you by Burger King."

I miss the Jerry Lawler we had up until maybe 2007-2008. His jokes were great up until the early 2000s. Now he just repeats himself too much. I miss heel King.

I miss not having the announcers talk to the people at home like they're idiots. "Well we completely forgot about Curtis Axel."-Michael Cole. Um....no we didn't.

I miss heel Matt Striker.

I miss the Kane that wasn't a complete joke. Kane's one of my favorite wrestlers and to see him in this state is disappointing. I'd love to have the Kane that was destroying Zack Ryder back.

I miss heels that made you say "Oh no, please don't do that" or ones you wanted to see get beat up instead of the ones I'm pretty indifferent towards. I remember when Kane first unmasked and started doing all these evil things that made me think "Get out of there Shane McMahon!"

I kind of miss Brad Maddox. The guy should be on TV more often.

I miss Vickie Guererro.....not being on TV.

 

[The Brain]

I miss these

[YOUTUBE]XQh76gmgDEI[/YOUTUBE]

The weekly reports leading up to the ppvs were awesome. They were the highlight of the show despite not having any action. I couldn't wait for these segments to see what new matches would be announced. They would start several weeks before a ppv and gave the event a bigger feel. Now we get a couple matches announced a few weeks ahead of time with half the card being thrown together a week before the show. Some matches aren't even announced at all. That lack of effort shows the creative team doesn't care about the entire roster or event which makes it hard for the fans to care about anything besides the main event.

 

[relentless1]

like someone else said i miss when finishers actually finished people, back in the day if you got hit with the pedigree or sweet chin music or the tombstone or the leg drop you were DONE 1 2 3 match over, same goes for submissions, the sharpshooter and the figure 4 among others were quality finishers, entire rosters tapped out to those moves... It adds to the illusion of legitimacy when finishers finish opponents and somewhere along the way vince forgot about that

 

[bioshock]

Good thread, I have many things I could list. Glad this is old school general and not limited to just WWE.

I too miss the bell ringing over and over during big brawls like a guy above said. And as said about the interviews in the OP, I totally agree with that, Mean Gean was great with telling you what the interview was for and about, it was far better then the same old we get now from the same few guys. Also miss the promos done during the match on the little pop up screen, I know WWE does those once in a great while now, but its hardly done enough.

OK now for what I didn't read. I miss the crowd being either pitch black (80s MSG events) or regular white lights on the crowd (most all Nitro shows), cant say how much I hate seeing red/blue and other colors on the crowd during Raw, SD, and the ppv events. Old School Raw with the crowd is how it should be.

I miss the little thing of a chair being used actually being a big deal to the announcers.

I really miss the weekly update with the ppv update as done from the studio in the 80s and 90s.

I also miss late night wrestling on the weekend, no not Shotgun Saturday Night, but rather ECW.

And a few easy ones. I miss the little Casio clock used for entrances in the Royal Rumble, with no music, no pyro, just the simple Casio clock and the wrestler walking out. I miss the classic blue or black steel cage. I miss that you could put big guys in the blue cage and even then they could do something entertaining, cause it wasn't a stupid fence with fixed holes to climb, they could climb anywhere in the blue cage, I miss that. The fence just isn't for big guys, or older wrestlers for that matter.

I miss blood in matches that are promoted as to having blood shed. No I'm not the type who bitches cause its PG, but my complaint would be; don't promote blood in a match unless its going to happen. No different in a PG setting to promote blood in a match promo, as it is to showing it. I miss when the wrestlers promos said it would be a bloody brawl, that it actually turned out to be one.

And I miss wrestlers feuding with announcers to the point of attacking them, rather then the Jerry Lawler route of dissing him (ala Punk/King feud). I miss at times like when Bret would bitch at Vince and some times attack him, Austin attacking Vince and JR, well before the feud was full on, or Bret Hart attacking Lawler, it all seemed to happen quite a lot from 93-97 before Vince left announcing to play the boss role. I miss that.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I really like the ring bell getting rung repeatedly mention.

I miss Michael Buffer, he was probably overused but he really gave a big match the biggest of feel.

I also miss curtains. I miss a guy walking straight out from behind a curtain as opposed to the WWE coming around a corner.

I miss pokes to the eyes. So simple, so wrong, so effective.

I miss funny signs. Maybe I'm not paying enough attention but I remember AE signs to be way funnier.

That's about all I can remember.

 

[Radical]

I miss WWE not being obsessed with social media and the WWE App (Shut up about the damn thing already.) I don't care to read tweets on the bottom of the screen. It's distracting. Also, does anyone give a damn about seeing various members in the audience drinking one of those new Sonic shakes? Whatever happened to "This portion of Raw is brought to you by Burger King."

I agree with basically everything you've said but I hate to tell ya about this point of yours right here ... it ain't gonna change anytime soon.

WWE is a business and they keep promoting the WWE App out the wazoo because in the end, the more people that have the App the more likely they are to stay interested in WWE and thus keeps their business going.

The tweets along the bottom of the screen are annoying, I agree, and MAYBE those will stop but not likely, it seems to be a way for WWE to subtly keep hyping certain Superstars and matches.

And yeah, maybe you don't care what kind of Sonic shake or Domino's pizza the fans in the front row are scarfing down ... but guess what? Sonic and Domino's are paying WWE a fair chunk of change to get that kind of exposure on TV.

WWE is a business so they are gonna take every penny they can get.

Now, when I say "it's not gonna change anytime soon" I don't mean any specific one of these things. I don't expect to hear about the WWE App every show from now until the end of the year. I think this is like when they got involved with Tout, they used it and promoted it a lot and then it mostly died down.

So things will change but at the end of the day things that make WWE money will always be done in favor of things that may not.

 

[HBsam31]

Like the OP said, I miss late night syndicated wrestling shows. Hell I would wait up until 2am to watch ECW, and sometimes it was even the same show I had just watched. I miss the original Summerslam theme music. If you don't remember it check it out. I miss jobbers. I miss jobbers. I miss jobbers. Stars can be showcased without having to give all the money matches away on free tv. Believe me, jobbers made ppvs feel way way way more special. I miss Howard Finkel, and Gary Micheal Capetta. I miss Jesse 'the body' and Gorilla Monsoon. I could seriously go on all night with this, but I think I mentioned enough. Did I mention that I missed jobbers?

 

[Pedigree1]

Awesome thread btw. Very well put together. SO many little things i miss. I miss weekly segments as the brain has already said. For most PPVs you may get 1 or two matches announced ahead of time with the rest of the card just thrown together. Back in the day,especially Mene Gene would do an awesome job of building up match after match.

It made sense incredible stories were built on that idea. Steamboat V Savage Savage V UW i could go on and on. I miss real announcers. Monsoon and Ventura were gold together. They would do an awesome job of talking about matches,brought up the story behind the feuds and injuries the wrestlers may be suffering from whether old or new. I also miss announcers taking sides.

Ventura would always take the sides of the heel while Moonsoon was a pro face person. I get JBL is trying to stick with the heels he is doing a great job. But Cole and Lawler talking about Domino's pizza and the WWE App which is brought up 5000 times during Raw is getting old. I just wish the announcers would stick to the topic at hand sometimes!

 

[Klown_Karnage]

I like this thread, just thought I'd mention that.

There's a couple of things that I miss. Perhaps they're not all together gone, but very nearly so. I'll just name two.

I miss the strange, bizzare, and out-there characters. I think of some of the downright weird things that the WWF/E came up with over the years. Many of them flopped, but I for one enjoyed them. Even the really bad ones. Nowadays the wrestling world is dominated by a very limited collection of "Joe Normal" characters. Occasionally you'll get something on the border of odd like Brodus or Tensai's current characters, but even then, they get shoved aside and end up doing filler matches. Granted, the Wyatt family gives me hope, but we'll have to wait and see.

The other thing I miss is the WWE being willing to get controversial. There is very little of shock value that a pro wrestler in this company can say or do without risking getting fired or angering one of the many special interest groups that have pretty much taken over the company's content. I actually preferred it when pro wrestling in general was considered the "bad influence" or "dirty little secret" because it meant that the performers could actually get aggressive, both physically and verbally, without worrying about losing sponsors and getting bad press.