Any fellow wrestling/WWE fans here?

[goodcop2000]

I only watched when I was young...stopped sometime in high school. I watched the WWF and my favorites were the British Bulldogs and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

[sgiove]

I used to watch when I was younger. My all-time favorite was the "Macho Man" Randy Savage (RIP). I was not a fan of Hulk Hogan or The Ultimate Warrior. They were just big men with good gimmicks, but neither had much in the way of "wrestling skills".

I actually took things to the next level months after graduating college. While working my first real day job, I signed up with Killer Kowalski's (well known wrestler from the 60's?) School of Wrestling and trained as a professional wrestler at night. I became "The Nomad", a good-guy but dressed in a black leather jacket and shades and wrestled in jeans and a black T-Shirt. I was blessed with two "professional" matches before having a car accident that sidelined me and, alas, I never returned.

I have fond memories, but haven't really watched much in the last 10-15 years. If there is nothing else on TV and I come by it, I'll usually watch for 10 minutes or so and then move on. For me, it's just not like it used to be.

[mqstout]

I go to a friend's Wrestlemania party every year, and generally catch one or two "weekly" shows throughout the year if I don't have anything else going on and it's on TV.

[StayPuft]

Glad to see there are a few of you who are at least casual wrestling fans.

By the way, my apologies if this was not the right place for this... hence why I asked it if was right at the beginning of my post. ;-) I saw that this was "Media" and not all of the threads seemed to be about zombies, so I figured this was the correct board. If not, I will certainly use the "Anything goes" area people mentioned from now on for stuff like that.

Anyways, I don't know much about UK wrestling, so I can't really comment on that. But, I always did like Macho Man as well. And Undertaker has always been one of my all time favorites. Sgiove, that is cool that you actually were a wrestler. Sorry to hear about your accident, and sorry that you haven't gone back.

Anyway, you kind of summed up my feelings lately. These days, I may tune in for a bit if it is on and I am bored, but I never tend to watch for long.

[Emp]

A question that always has haunted me...How in the hell do they decide who wins?
Everything is show right? So how does it come out that for example Undertaker wins over Hogan?
Do they roll over the floor in tights in a regular roman wrestling thing to find out who wins?

I'm just wondering

[StayPuft]

(06-11-2012 05:48 PM)Emp Wrote:  A question that always has haunted me...How in the hell do they decide who wins?
Everything is show right? So how does it come out that for example Undertaker wins over Hogan?
Do they roll over the floor in tights in a regular roman wrestling thing to find out who wins?

I'm just wondering

LOL! That is actually a fair (and refreshing) question to come from a non-fan. Well, it is all entertainment. They have writing teams who decide how all the storylines are going to go, and beyond that, Vince McMahon himself has a lot of input and final say over things. Plus, honestly, sometimes backstage politics play into it. But, for the most part, it is all decided as part of the ongoing storyline.

Think of it like a movie. How is it decided what happens in a movie? Because somebody wrote the script. How is it decided what happens in wrestling? Because somebody wrote it in the script (or whatever the heck they use). Though, things do sometimes change on the fly for whatever reason (injury, fan reaction, Vince or the writing team suddenly decide to go another route).

So, it isn't like it is real competition by any stretch of the imagination. If they wanted to have some extremely small, untalented dude easily defeat one of the big, hugely muscled, top guys, they could if the wanted. Obviously that typically doesn't happen, but if it benefits the story, they could if they so desired.

[Old Dwarf]

Well "Childern" back in the early 50's when TV was just getting started,Wrestling was big on TV,we all remember
Gorgeous George & Haystacks Calhoun.I think at the time most people didn't realize it was fake!.

It died out as TV got more programing options,then in the 70's it made a comeback as "Entertainment"
I watched with my young son & basically tore up the TV room.This was the Superstar Billy Graham,Bob Backland,
George the Animal Steel era .

OD

[StayPuft]

(06-11-2012 11:18 PM)Old Dwarf Wrote:  Well "Childern" back in the early 50's when TV was just getting started,Wrestling was big on TV,we all remember
Gorgeous George & Haystacks Calhoun.I think at the time most people didn't realize it was fake!.

It died out as TV got more programing options,then in the 70's it made a comeback as "Entertainment"
I watched with my young son & basically tore up the TV room.This was the Superstar Billy Graham,Bob Backland,
George the Animal Steel era .

OD

The wrestling industry was actually EXTREMELY protective of this “secret” for a long time. It wasn’t until fairly recently that they officially came clean about it. I think it would have been the late 90’s or early 00’s, but I can’t remember for sure. Vince McMahon himself finally came out and admitted that, while fake isn’t exactly the right term (the wrestlers do still take a lot of punishment and endure a lot of pain), it is all predetermined and for entertainment.

To be honest, I think it was a GREAT move. After all, the vast majority of wrestling fans were pretty near 100% sure it wasn’t real. Back in the day was one thing. Nowadays, it would be insulting our intelligence to try to continue to expect people to believe it is real. So, I think it was actually a smart move, and helped them to gain even better mainstream acceptance. More people were able to see it for what it really was, just pure entertainment. In the past, non-fans always thought fans literally thought it was real. Most of us knew the truth all along. So, this put that all behind us. You know, for the most part.

[ShastaHawk]

I've been a huge wrestling fan almost all my life but the travesty with Chris Benoit destroyed it for me. I still watch it but I'm not really a hardcore fan like I use to be

[Pred]

YES! Yes! YES!!!! I am a Wrestling fan!