Q&A thread - Your Questions Answered! **no chat**

Ape Lincoln

I have seen Beyond the Mat and remember that ridiculous utterance from Vince very well. This issue ('has pro wrestling gone too far') goes way back. Fact is there's probably no other show like Raw or their PPVs that are presented as real, filmed in front of a live audience but are all scripted and planned. Tv shows shot before a live audience have retakes, live gameshows aren't as scripted as WWE (and they don't have kayfabe to keep up), theatrical plays before a live audience dont use TV/film camera and editing techniques. Hell, the live audience were often treated as extras.

duuuaaaane

Ape Lincoln wrote: »

I have seen Beyond the Mat and remember that ridiculous utterance from Vince very well. This issue ('has pro wrestling gone too far') goes way back. Fact is there's probably no other show like Raw or their PPVs that are presented as real, filmed in front of a live audience but are all scripted and planned. Tv shows shot before a live audience have retakes, live gameshows aren't as scripted as WWE (and they don't have kayfabe to keep up), theatrical plays before a live audience dont use TV/film camera and editing techniques. Hell, the live audience were often treated as extras.

There is no show like wrestling in the world. As much as we complain about the product on a regular basis, there is no live show that is produced better than WWE, there is no show in the world that produces as much content each week as WWE. The reason wrestling is so ridiculed for being fake is because it does everything so well that it needs to be pointed out by sceptics.

gnfnrhead

Kolido wrote: »

Why did Sting never sign for the wwe? I read somewhere that he didn't like how they were going to use him after the take over in 2001, but I reckon if he join them in the early 90's he could have been massive for them. He is arguably one of the biggest stars never to wrestle for them

Sting is one of the few loyal wrestlers still going. He stuck with WCW all the way to the end. He's stuck with TNA for the best part of 10 years now when he could have went to WWE at any time. He claims he didnt approve of the WWF storylines, but he doesnt seem to have had many issues with the TNA storylines.

Personally, I reckon he is proud of the fact that he is by far the biggest name that Vince could never sign. I think he will be retired before he does anything with WWE and that will just be a HOF and DVD thing. I dont expect to ever see him wrestle for WWE.

Dancor

In the Stingers own words

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjctPQQWDVE

rovert

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Why is Goldust not used more on Raw?

In his role as an agent he approved a dangerous tag team move that got botched in one of the Prime Time Players's first matches on the main roster. Yoshi Tatsu landed on his head really badly. Goldust was the fall guy.

RD5220

Are the Undertaker, and the Rock good friends?

Hematocyte

Q: During Raw or whatever the backstage segments are usually presented as happening live. By the very nature that the show being scripted I'd imagine these segments are all pre-recorded anyway. However for my question , I'm wondering are these segments even recorded at the venue thy're supposed to be taking place in (in particular the ones that take place in 'an office' or other generic looking location)?

For example in Raw last night Vince turned up at the very end talking to Brad Maddox. Now, I've noticed Vince will often turn up in the ring at live events when they're close to Connecticut (eg he was in Providence about a week ago) . However last nights Raw was in Austin,so I could forsee him just recording the Maddox segment at home and the editing it into the episode of Raw.

So is this the case (both in general and in the case of Vince there)?

bobby_says_hi

It's normally a mix of live and pre-recorded backstage segments. The Rock's interview at Survivor Series was going to be pre-recorded but he asked to do it live so he could play off the crowd reaction. Since the show's script is changing so much during the week it's being planned out, they're probably all filmed at the venue since most wrestlers have no idea what they're even doing until they show up there. Unless it's an obvious location switch, they're probably all filmed at the venue

jaykhunter

Can someone give me a list of people TNA have let go recently? I know Bruce Pritchard was canned and Jesse Sorensen today

Palo Alto

DOC and D-Lo are gone I think.

Ape Lincoln

Matt Morgan is gone too afaik.

CastorTroy

jaykhunter wrote: »

Can someone give me a list of people TNA have let go recently? I know Bruce Pritchard was canned and Jesse Sorensen today

Noooo! Not Jesse. Who'll be Robbie E's bro now bro?

jaykhunter

CastorTroy wrote: »

Noooo! Not Jesse. Who'll be Robbie E's bro now bro?

That's Jessie Godderz - Jesse Sorensen is the dude who got his neck broken by Zema Ion 2 years ago. He had a backstage role since it looked like he wasn't returning to wrestle again

Omackeral

Tara has also gone bye bye's hasn't she? That may be old news though.

gnfnrhead

Not all in the latest cuts, but in recent times:

Doug Williams
Alex Silva
Crimson
Christian York
Joey Ryan
Taelor Hendrix
Matt Morgan
Jesse Sorensen
Tara
D'Lo Brown
Bruce Prichard

Also DOC and Madison Rayne, but their contracts were up rather than being released.

kksaints

Are Main Event and Superstars taped at the same taping as Smackdown? Also why is Superstars still being taped, surely with Main Event and NXT there is no need for it?

Mr.Saturn

kksaints wrote: »

Are Main Event and Superstars taped at the same taping as Smackdown? Also why is Superstars still being taped, surely with Main Event and NXT there is no need for it?

With Superstars, there's international TV obligations. Likely, it'll be gone whenever its contract expires.

Superstars tapings are generally spread across RAW and Smackdown, whilst Main Event is done before SD, as it'd be too long to expect a crowd to hang around if done on RAW.

Ape Lincoln

Ppft crowds in the 90s used to sit through 5/6 hrs of TV!

Liamalone

Having been dragged into wrestling through my son and having big respect for the athleticism and skill involved, and having watched the last three or four ppv's, I must ask...... Why the hell folk watch this stuff? It's cringeworthy. And, why is there no real matches like in boxing or ufc? neither of which I am a fan of by the way.

Not flaming, been following it this year or two and can't fathom it. I was at the Odyssey a few months ago and enjoyed it but mainly because I was a first timer, going again in November but I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

Title does say, question and answer.

ricero

Liamalone wrote: »

Having been dragged into wrestling through my son and having big respect for the athleticism and skill involved, and having watched the last three or four ppv's, I must ask...... Why the hell folk watch this stuff? It's cringeworthy. And, why is there no real matches like in boxing or ufc? neither of which I am a fan of by the way.

Not flaming, been following it this year or two and can't fathom it. I was at the Odyssey a few months ago and enjoyed it but mainly because I was a first timer, going again in November but I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

Title does say, question and answer.

Its a tv show at the end of the day. Its scripted sports entertainment

Ape Lincoln

Liamalone wrote: »

Having been dragged into wrestling through my son and having big respect for the athleticism and skill involved, and having watched the last three or four ppv's, I must ask...... Why the hell folk watch this stuff? It's cringeworthy. And, why is there no real matches like in boxing or ufc? neither of which I am a fan of by the way.

Not flaming, been following it this year or two and can't fathom it. I was at the Odyssey a few months ago and enjoyed it but mainly because I was a first timer, going again in November but I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

Title does say, question and answer.

In short, pro wrestling hit its peak more than 10 years ago with WrestleMania 17.

Why are there no "real" fights? You are watchimg pro wrestling ie. it's not real, you get a worked ie. faked fight. The reason why wrestling became a 'work' (look up a pro wrestling glossary) is pretty interesting but complicated.

Look at the John Cena and Brock Lesnar Extreme Rules 2012 to see the closest to a "real" fight if you want. (the match was a work but very stiff ie. there were strikes that were real. The golden rule of pro wrestling is to fake a real fight because you can make more money that way.

Hematocyte

^^ Can't speak for everyone, but I personally watch it (WWE) for comedy value. It's just a bit of fun and you get the odd laugh here and there from the macho posturing and the stupid storylines. The actual wrestling itself is almost secondary for me to the soap opera aspect of it all. The only thing I get out of matches is the generally the finish or maybe trying to work out why a particular outcome happened (in terms of guessing where the story will go next). Whatever though, I'm not overly invested in the action going on the ring or thinking "ohh, excellent armbar there" or "I hope such and such a wrestler wins this one" etc

As to why there's no 'real matches'? Well I guess that's just the business. Unlike UFC or Boxers the wrestlers have to do hundreds of dates per year and if they were allowed really beat each other up every night then I guess they'd be missing a lot of their dates.

I personally don't care that it's not real and that the whole thing is fixed. I watch plenty of real competitive sport too (in particular Football and NFL) when I want the real thing. By comparison I don't think you should even try to judge wrestling as a 'sport' (even if the wrestlers themselves are pretending that beating the other guy is so important). You have to think of it more as a 'performance' (more akin to a trip to the circus than a boxing or UFC fight). I think if you can start judging it on that level then you'll start to enjoy it. If not then I'd reckon it's best to stay clear of it.

bobby_says_hi

Difference between watching an action movie and watching an action reality TV show. If we're watching the movie, we check our brains at the door and have a willing suspension of disbelief to just be entertained. If we watch a reality show then we expect real thrills. People always love to put a narrative on things and make it a good vs evil battle. A movie about two sports teams facing each other wouldn't be very interesting if one team wasn't full of evil jerk jocks now would it? The tabloid articles painted Angelina Jolie as the wicked witch stealing Brad Pitt from the sweet Jennifer Aniston when all that happened was that one relationship ended and he decided to pursue another. A documentary may be real but it's still edited together to create a narrative. Even in wrestling itself when two workers are rumoured to have a real life dislike of each other, people are more excited to see a match between them.

Liamalone

I appreciate the civilised answers guys, and I cannot overestimate the admiration I have for the wrestlers and their trade. I think the key thing stated above is the amount of shows these chaps put on, as you say they are on the road all year around and that takes some doing in itself.

I suppose, being a blow in so to speak, I'm disappointed that there is no 'real' matches and probably annoyed at hearing my wee lad asking if it's real or not, he's 11. I just reply "what do you think?" and leave the room lol.

Cheers

Liamalone

bobby_says_hi wrote: »

Difference between watching an action movie and watching an action reality TV show. If we're watching the movie, we check our brains at the door and have a willing suspension of disbelief to just be entertained. If we watch a reality show then we expect real thrills. People always love to put a narrative on things and make it a good vs evil battle. A movie about two sports teams facing each other wouldn't be very interesting if one team wasn't full of evil jerk jocks now would it? The tabloid articles painted Angelina Jolie as the wicked witch stealing Brad Pitt from the sweet Jennifer Aniston when all that happened was that one relationship ended and he decided to pursue another. A documentary may be real but it's still edited together to create a narrative. Even in wrestling itself when two workers are rumoured to have a real life dislike of each other, people are more excited to see a match between them.

With regard to this, in a way, Jeez this face/heel thing is hard to keep up with, hard to see how it can be manipulated 100% of the time. The wee man would look at me funny if I brought that up to him lol

Don't get me started on babyface n that

gnfnrhead

WWE isnt wrestling, it's entertainment. Dont judge wrestling based on the one company who is ashamed to call themselves a wrestling company.

bobby_says_hi

Liamalone wrote: »

With regard to this, in a way, Jeez this face/heel thing is hard to keep up with, hard to see how it can be manipulated 100% of the time. The wee man would look at me funny if I brought that up to him lol

Don't get me started on babyface n that

It's often due to bad booking if it's hard to keep up with. Some bookers really don't know how to write a good character and think a turn is magic that will fix everything. It's actually surprising right now that there are so many face turns going on. Mark Henry, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Dolph Ziggler etc. Del Rio's heel turn was also surprising since he was only turned face back in December. And there's also a Diva called Alicia Fox who will literally be a face or heel depending on who they want her to go against.

The face/heel divide is there to determine a wrestler's role in a match. Like a hero in a story, the face must suffer. S/he must be worked on and dominated by the heel in the same way a villain must be on top for the majority of the plot. The face must fight back and eventually overpower the heel to either triumph or fail. Each match is essentially a mini-story. In wrestling school they teach you how to properly structure a match and work on storytelling

Hematocyte

Q: Why were the early years of Raw episodes held at 'Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center Studios'?

The wiki says it was an 'intimate venue' that 'proved highly successful', but despite that I seriously doubt it was ever the look WWF were going for. Was there some technical or financial limitation at the time that meant live shows could not be held in the typical size arenas that WWF were used to performing in?

Example...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_L2FjcMiRE

Jason Todd

From 7.35 onwards, Vince says 'Macho Man Randy Savage; undoubtedly a future WWF Hall of Famer",

Ape Lincoln

Is there any difference between using the terms championship, championship belt, the belt, title? a la 'superstars' instead of wrestlers.