Things you miss.....

AlphaMale 3OO

We all have things from the old school that we miss about wrestling and I'm guessing this thread has been done a thousand times, but lets do it again. What do you miss from the old days? (Whenever they were for you - me late 80's/early 90's). I'm not talking about individuals i.e. "bring back Stone Cold/The Rock/insert wrestler here". I'm talking about fundamental wrestling institutions that have been completely lost in the mix these days. I'll get the ball rolling:

Where is the old heel/face commentary combination? Every commentary team is now face/face. I miss the days of contrasting opinions, Jesse argueing with Vince, Heenan spouting bullsh1t to Gorilla Monsoon ("will you stop!!!!"), these guys were more entertaining than the matches themselves.

I also miss managers. They used to have such influence on a match and the recent Legends game brought all this back to me. I HATED Jimmy Hart as a kid because he was so good! There's no managers left and that sucks. I actually think Ranjin Singh is really funny as a mouthpiece and we should have more like him.

So what do you miss? (No individuals!)

ShawnRaven

I miss the fact that when someone won a world heavyweight title, it meant something. Since about 96 onwards, that has no longer been the case as it has changed hands so many times a year. Especially around 98-99 when it almost changed every two months, especially Kane's one day reign.

Also the tag team scene, or the lack of it at this stage.

rossie1977

speaking of heel commentators, was watching some stuff from 2007 the other night, jbl was so funny

i miss the old openings to the royal rumble, re: royal rumble 1991 and 1992

Black Lead

ShawnRaven wrote: »

I miss the fact that when someone won a world heavyweight title, it meant something. Since about 96 onwards, that has no longer been the case as it has changed hands so many times a year. Especially around 98-99 when it almost changed every two months, especially Kane's one day reign.

Also the tag team scene, or the lack of it at this stage.

Agree to many title changes over the past decade and I miss the unwritten rule about the Intercontinental Title

The Cannibal

I miss the period right before the Montreal screwjob. That was my favourite time as a wrestling fan.

The Hart Foundation were red hot with many of them having ****+ matches on a regular basis. Bret Hart in particular was the best wrestler on the planet at this time.

Austin came across as a legit bad ass then, before the attitude era turned him into a characature drinking beer on 4 ring posts.

Shawn Michaels was at his peak before his 5 year lay off and DX were just taking off. Michaels was much more entertaining before "finding" Christ. Mick Foley and The Rock were also starting to build steam.

Matches actually seemed to matter and weren't diluted down with a draft or a gazillion title belts. I even preferred the old Raw set that was just the foreboding titantron and a ramp with barely anything else. I don't like the overproduced light show entrance ramps they have today.

As for other things I miss. I miss the Paul Heyman/JR commentary combo. Heyman was a heel commentator that actually worked at getting talent over instead of himself over. He bought Rhyno a decent push on his arrival by getting over the "Gore!" on commentary. I also like that he seemed to legit get under JR's skin at times and kept him on his toes. JR is good at what he does but I think he gets complacent some nights, and Heyman wouldn't let him.

ShawnRaven

rossie1977 wrote: »

speaking of heel commentators, was watching some stuff from 2007 the other night, jbl was so funny

i miss the old openings to the royal rumble, re: royal rumble 1991 and 1992

You talking about the opening to the entire PPV from 89-92 where Vince would call out all the guys taking part, and the matches before the PPV actually kicked off? If so, then yeah, i miss that too.

ShawnRaven

The Cannibal wrote: »

Michaels was much more entertaining before "finding" Christ.

Sorry but this statement irked me a little bit, and i'll explain why.

People boil his toning down of his antics due to finding religion. Fair enough, their opinion, but nobody ever stops to think that it was the fact that he's y'know, 10 years older and the DX skits wouldn't be as funny, or the fact that he's got kids now who are kinda old enough to see him on TV and he doesn't want em seeing that?

But hey, let's not let that get in the way of some good ol' religion bashing!
Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

Otis Driftwood

Being entertained.

The Cannibal

ShawnRaven wrote: »

Sorry but this statement irked me a little bit, and i'll explain why.

People boil his toning down of his antics due to finding religion. Fair enough, their opinion, but nobody ever stops to think that it was the fact that he's y'know, 10 years older and the DX skits wouldn't be as funny, or the fact that he's got kids now who are kinda old enough to see him on TV and he doesn't want em seeing that?

But hey, let's not let that get in the way of some good ol' religion bashing!
Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

I didn't mean it as religion bashing. I meant it as I didn't think he was genuine. And by more entertaining, I mean the attitude he brought to the ring and the pure arrogance he exuded, not the DX skits. Pretty much just a projection of what he really was at the time but it was more entertaining. I don't like what I've heard about him as a person, but I used to love him as a performer pre-WM14.

My views on religion and wrestling is that they don't go together. Wrestling simply doesn't know how to handle religion so they usually just end up mocking it and making you cringe. Like when they gave Shawn Michaels God as a tag team partner. I also really cringed watching his entrance at Wrestlemania where he descended on a heavenly cloud looking all holy like he was some sort of saint. I know they were going for a contrast to Taker's entrance but it was really cringe worthy stuff.

rossie1977

ShawnRaven wrote: »

You talking about the opening to the entire PPV from 89-92 where Vince would call out all the guys taking part, and the matches before the PPV actually kicked off? If so, then yeah, i miss that too.

yeah thats what i was referring to, its time for the rumble, its time for the royyalllllllll rumbllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllle :P

ShawnRaven

The Cannibal wrote: »

I didn't mean it as religion bashing. I meant it as I didn't think he was genuine. And by more entertaining, I mean the attitude he brought to the ring and the pure arrogance he exuded, not the DX skits. Pretty much just a projection of what he really was at the time but it was more entertaining. I don't like what I've heard about him as a person, but I used to love him as a performer pre-WM14.

Fair point, but i'll still hammer on the fact that there's no way he'll get away with a cocky, arrogant character now that he's into his 40s. Hogan was able to pull it off about 10 years ago or so, but it got old pretty quick. For Michaels, it was right place and right time. In ring wise, he never lost it in my honest opinion, but promo wise, i don't think he'll ever recapture lightning in a bottle.

My views on religion and wrestling is that they don't go together. Wrestling simply doesn't know how to handle religion so they usually just end up mocking it and making you cringe. Like when they gave Shawn Michaels God as a tag team partner. I also really cringed watching his entrance at Wrestlemania where he descended on a heavenly cloud looking all holy like he was some sort of saint. I know they were going for a contrast to Taker's entrance but it was really cringe worthy stuff.

I have to say, I enjoyed the entrance, i also really enjoyed the entrance he did on Smackdown the week prior to Mania. But i agree with everything else. Although i do have to say, i found McMahonism funny...





.... for about nine seconds.

waltersobchak

i miss the days when raw was actually worth watching, and didnt make me feel like iv just wasted 2 hours of my life..

jossnjuice

things i miss.....in no particular order!!

sables assets
paul bearer for some strange reason
any form of the ministry
vinne mac being a commentator
being privleged enough to see mr perfect in action
the hype waiting to watch raw on a friday in around the time of the monday night wars
proper promos that actually meant something
and proper stories, with meaning that would last longer than a month and actually have a decent build up.....

and of course i miss the attitude era and not this kiddie friendly trash that we have to watch week after week, i mean like come on the most contrersial thing in the last year was show throwing cena into a light stand....BIG SWING!!!

EdK

jossnjuice wrote: »

things i miss.....in no particular order!!

sables assets
paul bearer for some strange reason
any form of the ministry
vinne mac being a commentator
being privleged enough to see mr perfect in action
the hype waiting to watch raw on a friday in around the time of the monday night wars
proper promos that actually meant something
and proper stories, with meaning that would last longer than a month and actually have a decent build up.....

and of course i miss the attitude era and not this kiddie friendly trash that we have to watch week after week, i mean like come on the most contrersial thing in the last year was show throwing cena into a light stand....BIG SWING!!!

Un-be-lievable!!!

grames_bond

i miss proper feuds with stables, ministry/corporation/nation of domination/ (proper) DX/ the union/ hart foundation etc etc

these were great storylines with limitless possibilities/permeatations to comtinue on the storylines and give the feud some proper heat!

that and as shawn mentioned, a proper tag team division, TNA are doing a better job with respect to that and ive only seen TNA once! :pac:

rossie1977

jossnjuice wrote: »

and of course i miss the attitude era and not this kiddie friendly trash that we have to watch week after week, i mean like come on the most contrersial thing in the last year was show throwing cena into a light stand....BIG SWING!!!

just off the top of my head in the last 2 months

*brutal beating of a 60 year old flair by jericho which cut open flair legit
*orton kicking a 64 year old vince in the head
*orton rko and ddting steph on tv, man on woman violence is now kiddie friendly
*HHH beating up randy orton in his own house (or a house in florida )

in truth PG rated wwe isn't that far removed from attitude era wwe, remove the blading, the bra and panties, austin sticking up his fingers and rock saying pie and really how different is it:
-you still have cage matches
-you still have hell in a cell matches
-you still get wrestlers beating the crap out of each other in the crowd and through the merch stands (cena and edge did at backlash)
-you still have elimination chambers
-you still have chairs, tables, ladders
-at backlash you had matt hardy tied to a table begging for his life, is that really PG

deanodrummer

Man I could be here all day.. Seems like all I do is moan about wrestling nowadays.

Anyways I miss..

* Managers. They added so much to a wrestler, to matches and to storylines. Bring them back.
* A proper tag team division. It gives the cards some variety of matches, offers different feuding options and i enjoyed when the tag titles meant something. Honestly name the last really good tag match off the top of your head?
* Title prestige. If you were a title holder back in the day it meant something and people took notice. Not anymore with the gazillion belts they have. 2 women's titles? :eek:
*Unpredictabilty. I don't really watch anymore cos I know it'll be the same formula as every other week.
*Un-scripted promos. Do I even need to carry on about this. Wrestlers are bad actors. Might help if they just speak from the heart again.
*The little things mentioned earlier like the basic Raw stage, not the big light show they have now. made you focus more on the wrestling. They openings to the late 80s/early 90's ppvs were great ha. I miss those. The Rooooyaaalll Ruummmbbllleee! And the thanksgiving Survivor Series asking what the wrestler's were thankful for. Roddy Piper ''I'm thankful cos I ain't Ricky Rude. Mwah.''. Quality.

DM_7

rossie1977 wrote: »

just off the top of my head in the last 2 months

*brutal beating of a 60 year old flair by jericho which cut open flair legit
*orton kicking a 64 year old vince in the head
*orton rko and ddting steph on tv, man on woman violence is now kiddie friendly
*HHH beating up randy orton in his own house (or a house in florida )

in truth PG rated wwe isn't that far removed from attitude era wwe, remove the blading, the bra and panties, austin sticking up his fingers and rock saying pie and really how different is it:
-you still have cage matches
-you still have hell in a cell matches
-you still get wrestlers beating the crap out of each other in the crowd and through the merch stands (cena and edge did at backlash)
-you still have elimination chambers
-you still have chairs, tables, ladders
-at backlash you had matt hardy tied to a table begging for his life, is that really PG

Good point (s).

For me I still love wrestling. If everyting I wanted to happen actually happened I would get bored fast.

The only things I miss are having some good tag teams and a couple of groups.
Im also miss the guys i used to watch who have sadly passed away.

100% recycled

I miss being a total wrestling mark!

I was lucky enough to be one of the kids with Sky growing up. The Monday after a big pay-per-view, i'd rush into school early so I could tell all the guys what happened and start the passing around of the sacred VHS of the event!!

I also miss the pre-internet wrestling days when staying up late to watch RAW actually meant something to me!

orestes

What do I miss?

I miss wrestling, Sports Entertainment sucks ass

ShawnRaven

orestes wrote: »

What do I miss?

I miss wrestling, Sports Entertainment sucks ass

lol i love the sig!

CMpunked

100% recycled wrote: »

I miss being a total wrestling mark!

I was lucky enough to be one of the kids with Sky growing up. The Monday after a big pay-per-view, i'd rush into school early so I could tell all the guys what happened and start the passing around of the sacred VHS of the event!!

I also miss the pre-internet wrestling days when staying up late to watch RAW actually meant something to me!

OMG YES!!

That pretty much sums it up for me right there.

Of course i could go on about all the things i miss from the actual watching of the WWF, but that has been done to death at this stage. (like what, there is loads of these threads already, hell, even I started one!)

Anywhay...

I loved the emotional connection you would have with the guys on a monday morning before school.
Telling them all the ways you avoided the TV being too loud to waken your parents, describing what each big spot looked like, describing what the divas were wearing


I miss innocence!

DM_7

Lads your right.

Wrestling was more fun when we were younger. One of the things I always loved was talking wrestling with the lads in school or after school. Even watching wrestling with the other kids was great fun.

Now I watch it by myself and it takes some of the fun out of it. I end up over analysing it rather than enjoying it.

Jolt2007

Ha that's all true. Loved it staying up for the PPV's, half because I got to see it live and half because I knew the next day at school I'd be the coolest kid in the yard :cool:

DM_7

Jolt2007 wrote: »

Ha that's all true. Loved it staying up for the PPV's, half because I got to see it live and half because I knew the next day at school I'd be the coolest kid in the yard :cool:

I'm jealous now, you got to stay up. I only ever got to see them if i was off school. I snuck down a couple of times to catch the end of a PPV to see who the champ would be, but i was always scared i'd be caught.

Jolt2007

Don't get too jealous, I only got to watch the ones on Channel 4 For the rest of them the next day was spent working hard so we would be all allowed to use the school computers to check the results.

DM_7

Jolt2007 wrote: »

Don't get too jealous, I only got to watch the ones on Channel 4 For the rest of them the next day was spent working hard so we would be all allowed to use the school computers to check the results.

What! Your school had computers.

I suppose we still only get to see the channel 4 ones. The old channel 4 ones are the only ones sky show for free, after that its selected DVDs, or youtube, (sky get enough each month as it is, can't afford a PPV every few weeks).

So there is another thing i miss, free PPVs.

CMpunked

Computers in primary schools?!

Where the hell did you go to school? :eek:


The smell of nostalgia here is unbelievable
But watching wrestling in those days made you want to be a wrestler.

Call it markish if you want, but they made you believe that you could do what they were doing.

Completely different to kids nowadays.

100% recycled

C-B-G wrote: »

The smell of nostalgia here is unbelievable
But watching wrestling in those days made you want to be a wrestler.

Call it markish if you want, but they made you believe that you could do what they were doing.

Completely different to kids nowadays.

They were larger than life back then but you honestly did believe you could one day make it as a pro wrestler The fact I was 4 foot 2 and 4 stone soaking wet didn't make a difference of course!! :P

I watch WWE with my son now and he knows more about the ins and outs of the business than I do. I wish I could take him back to show him how cool and real wrestling used to be! It was everything to us!!

"It's still real to me dammit!!!"

CMpunked

The second they invent the time machine i know exactly to where i'm going to

...Maybe i have been watching lost and BTTF way too much lately

Jolt2007

Yeah, we had one computer, only ever used for results and solitaire. We all knew it was fake back then, as much as now but it was still fun to be a mark.

To go even further back, Saturdays, and the debate in the garden after about who was going to be Sting and who would be Vader :P

DM_7

Or who would be hbk and who would be bret.

CBG is right, the smell of nostalgia is very strong, but its a nice scent.

When i was really young I remember we took the don't try this at home seriously. So when we wrestled we did no contact on each other, so we subbed in teddy bears for the submission holds and BIG moves. After all the headlocks the Teddy got I know how Randy Orton Learned to wrestle!

Remember the annuals and sticker books? Thats what I miss, when wrestling could make you cry when your faves lost and you would go to bed dreaming of getting the 2nd half of the big British Bulldog Sticker.

I'm never slagging Cena or Batista again.

CMpunked

:P:P



I completed like 3 of these albums.

DM_7

3 COOL!!

I don't think this is what was intended by the things you miss thread, but i really do miss swapping stickers!

CMpunked

DM-ICE wrote: »

3 COOL!!

I don't think this is what was intended by the things you miss thread, but i really do miss swapping stickers!

The thread is:

Things you miss...


And dammit, I miss the stickers too

They should bring back them, but i guess a lot of the appeal was going to the shop and getting 2 packets and penny jellies with the left over change.

rossie1977

orestes wrote: »

What do I miss?

I miss wrestling, Sports Entertainment sucks ass

i don't remember vinnie seniors wwwf unfortunately

ShawnRaven

rossie1977 wrote: »

i don't remember vinnie seniors wwwf unfortunately

No, but you're old enough to remember Jim Crockett Promotions :P

HBK

ShawnRaven wrote: »

I miss the fact that when someone won a world heavyweight title, it meant something. Since about 96 onwards, that has no longer been the case as it has changed hands so many times a year. Especially around 98-99 when it almost changed every two months, especially Kane's one day reign.

You know I was only thinking this yesterday, it really doesnt matter who is champ anymore, irelevent! Not bashing but an example would be CM Punk, just fails in comparison to the days of Hogan/Warrior/Macho etc...he is just no different from the rest of the roster, back then, those guys mentioned, seemed to be a cut above the rest, not everyone on the same tier........oor maybe thats just me...hmmm

ShawnRaven

HBK wrote: »

You know I was only thinking this yesterday, it really doesnt matter who is champ anymore, irelevent! Not bashing but an example would be CM Punk, just fails in comparison to the days of Hogan/Warrior/Macho etc...he is just no different from the rest of the roster, back then, those guys mentioned, seemed to be a cut above the rest, not everyone on the same tier........oor maybe thats just me...hmmm

It's down to buildup and steady creation of new stars. Granted some are built up well, Cena was built up well, as was Edge. But initially the belt was just thrown onto Orton as an experiment in 2004 not long after he dropped the IC strap (which works in some cases, as it did for Bret in 1992), same with CM Punk, it was literally just throw on him.

MITB should be dumped in my honest opinion, that way they can build someone to a world title program, instead of any joe soap booked to win one just cos they grabbed a briefcase in a crappy spotfest match at Mania.

With the likes of Savage and Warrior, they were progressively built (Hogan/Warrior was 3 months of steady progression from Royal Rumble right up til the week before Mania),

Savage was an accident, although it worked out well and he was scheduled to win the big one later in 88. From my understanding, it was DiBiase who was supposed to win it at Mania IV, and then drop it to Savage at Summerslam 88. Then Hogan/Savage would happen at Mania V.

But Honky wouldn't drop the IC title to Savage and threatened to run to NWA with the belt, and then Savage threatened to shoot on Honky on live TV as a result, so Vince changed the booking to avoid the fiasco.

This is again, a major problem with too many TV shows, wrestling gets shown too often a week now and it moves too quickly. No time to develop gripping stories, no time to develop new stars. New stars that do get developed get thrown in at the deep end, and then get chewed up when their one month buildup generates little or no interest and becomes a fail.

Wrestling is in limbo now, and has been for several years in my honest opinion.

D-FENS

I miss Todd Pettengill

Seriously though, I’m having Sky Sports cut off at the end of the month, footie season will be over and Raw etc. just haven’t been worth it for me the last few months, so I’m gonna reduce my WWE viewing to Experience on Sky One for a while, which may have me wishing for the good old days of "Livewire" on a Saturday morning with Todd before too long

ShawnRaven

D-FENS wrote: »

I miss Todd Pettengill

Seriously though, I’m having Sky Sports cut off at the end of the month, footie season will be over and Raw etc. just haven’t been worth it for me the last few months, so I’m gonna reduce my WWE viewing to Experience on Sky One for a while, which may have me wishing for the good old days of "Livewire" on a Saturday morning with Todd before too long

Currently watching 1996 Nitro at present, waaaay better than the current drivel that Vince is passing off as "sports entertainment" these days.

There's not a whole lot I miss to be honest. I enjoy the current product as much as I've ever enjoyed it really. Wrestling is wrestling to me at the end of the day.


I miss wrestling matches at primary school in the play ground. But I don't blame WWE for that. I always knew i was going to leave primary school at some point in time, regardless of the booking in WWE at the time.

pingu_girl

4-5 WWF pay per views a year and actually looking forwards to them.

The Light heavy weight championship

Nitro and too a lesser extent Thunder

Getting Wcw pay per views on video almost a year after they were on.

NWO VS WCW

Lots of stables/ factions

Eric Bischoff on TV

Vince as a permanent figure on TV

PWI magazines during the time of the Monday night wars and before I had internet checking the ratings and the annual PWI 500 issues

ScumdogV2

Bit of an odd one here, but I miss the feeling I got when I read Powerslam about ten years ago. I was only twelve at the time and PS covered a lot of the ECW shows in detail. Looking at the photos, you could tell it was something very different to WWF & WCW. The way they'd describe the action and the gritty photos of people bleeding all over the place and jumping off balconies and such, it was a revelation to me at the time.

Of course, not aware of those lovely tape traders at the age of twelve, the fact I couldn't watch it on tape made me stare at those photos and read their article on the latest ECW PPV over and over again.

The last time I can honestly say I had those types of feelings was when they covered ROH's first ever show in Feb 2002. Just by those photos, I knew it was an event I wanted to see.

I miss those memories.

lynnsback

Lots I miss:
Big dramatic storyline build ups
Wrestlers always keeping kayfabe
Five PPV's a year and each one being very special
Proper romantic storylines like The Macho man and Elizabeth
The Steph and HHH era
Classy ladies rather than managers who are just T&A
When it was WWF not WWE