Based on some recommendations here I subscribed to the WWE network. Long story short started wathcing the wrestling back in 1988 at the age of ten or so, was not a fan of Hulkamania but I like Jake the Snake and Ultimate Warrior along with various other wrestlers.
WWE stopped screening here but you could rent the main events form the video store so mid 90's I watched most of them so I have seen most of the Wrestlemanias from V-XII or so. I was 11 when I figured out kayfabe as I am not American and some of it was to over the top and cheesy to be believed (even by the standards of the 80's). And if you did things like piledrivers and DDTs on people you would kill/injure them.
I was there at the birth of the attitude era more or less stopping watching in around 1996.97. I discovered this thing called "girls" and she was not a wrestling fan.
WCW started screening here so I watched a bit of that at 1sst I thought it may have been WWF rebranded due to a lot of familiar faces such as Razor Ramon, Diesel, Hogan etc but quickly figured it out. The last WWE programming I remember was Gold dust turning up, Steve Austin passing out to Bret the Hitman Hart, Shawn Michaels wining Royal Rumble entering at number 1 and then winning the World Title and Chyna turning up.
SIncce then I kind of followed the wrestling online up to a point and recently watched a few matches on youtube from the 90's and early 2000's. I missed John Cena, Austins retirement, but watched things like HBK vs Undertaker for Shawn Michaels retirement on youtube.
So anyway getting that wrestling itch again I signed up for the WWE network last night after following various youtube commentators so I knew who Roman Reigns was.
The 1st event I decided to watch was the Royal Rumble 2016. Well at least the rumble I skipped the main events. Knowing nothign about the event I watched the mini plotline, Vince screws Reigns. OK fine, VInce has been playing the same character since the Montreal Screwjob and I roughly knew about him feuding with Stone Cold via mates who did watch the wrestling.
I had heard about Reigns being booed (in a bad way he is a face) and my idea of good booing is something like Sergeant Slaughters Iraqi gimmick or HBK in Montreal in 2005. Reigns no real opinion one way or the other, I expected him to win as the WWE was pushing him but he missed most of the rumble and came back later. This I felt was stupid and he did not even hide under the Ring like Jerry the King Lawler. That is probably more of a booking thing though.
For such a heavy push he is no Hogan/UIltimate Warriror/Machoman/HBK/Bret Hart/Stone Cold/Rock/Undertaker/Kane etc etc etc. That might be a problem for the WWE and yes I know about his suspension. Did not love or hate him he was just there.
Context I am not very familiar with most of the modern roster.
Overall I actually really enjoyed the rumble. Rybak made me laugh (and has left the WWE) along with Kofi or whatever who brought a ladder to the match. I liked seeing Kane, Big Show and Jericho in it and Jericho lasted longer than I thought. The Wyatt brothers as heels was kind of well done, AJ Stiles made his debut and I assume he is going to get a heavy push and was more interesting than Reigns. I did not recognise most of the theme music either (Kane, Gold Dust and Reigns being exceptions) so it was a bit of a surprise as to who came out.
I also liked some of the smaller wrestlers and was interested in them such as Neville and Sami Zayn. Most of the competitors seemed to have some talent at least face or heel the ones that bored me were Mark Henry (never really liked him), Brock Lesnar, and most of the bigger wrestlers who bored me (Braun Strowman being an exception).
Overall I liked it, on to Wrestlemania and Summer Slam and might even start watching RAW and Smackdown. Triple H winning was a bit bleah as I had recently watched him vs Sting on youtube at Wrestlemania 31. There is a time and place for attitude era stars, winning main events probably not one of them but at least he an still perform.
WWE stopped screening here but you could rent the main events form the video store so mid 90's I watched most of them so I have seen most of the Wrestlemanias from V-XII or so. I was 11 when I figured out kayfabe as I am not American and some of it was to over the top and cheesy to be believed (even by the standards of the 80's). And if you did things like piledrivers and DDTs on people you would kill/injure them.
I was there at the birth of the attitude era more or less stopping watching in around 1996.97. I discovered this thing called "girls" and she was not a wrestling fan.
WCW started screening here so I watched a bit of that at 1sst I thought it may have been WWF rebranded due to a lot of familiar faces such as Razor Ramon, Diesel, Hogan etc but quickly figured it out. The last WWE programming I remember was Gold dust turning up, Steve Austin passing out to Bret the Hitman Hart, Shawn Michaels wining Royal Rumble entering at number 1 and then winning the World Title and Chyna turning up.
SIncce then I kind of followed the wrestling online up to a point and recently watched a few matches on youtube from the 90's and early 2000's. I missed John Cena, Austins retirement, but watched things like HBK vs Undertaker for Shawn Michaels retirement on youtube.
So anyway getting that wrestling itch again I signed up for the WWE network last night after following various youtube commentators so I knew who Roman Reigns was.
The 1st event I decided to watch was the Royal Rumble 2016. Well at least the rumble I skipped the main events. Knowing nothign about the event I watched the mini plotline, Vince screws Reigns. OK fine, VInce has been playing the same character since the Montreal Screwjob and I roughly knew about him feuding with Stone Cold via mates who did watch the wrestling.
I had heard about Reigns being booed (in a bad way he is a face) and my idea of good booing is something like Sergeant Slaughters Iraqi gimmick or HBK in Montreal in 2005. Reigns no real opinion one way or the other, I expected him to win as the WWE was pushing him but he missed most of the rumble and came back later. This I felt was stupid and he did not even hide under the Ring like Jerry the King Lawler. That is probably more of a booking thing though.
For such a heavy push he is no Hogan/UIltimate Warriror/Machoman/HBK/Bret Hart/Stone Cold/Rock/Undertaker/Kane etc etc etc. That might be a problem for the WWE and yes I know about his suspension. Did not love or hate him he was just there.
Context I am not very familiar with most of the modern roster.
Overall I actually really enjoyed the rumble. Rybak made me laugh (and has left the WWE) along with Kofi or whatever who brought a ladder to the match. I liked seeing Kane, Big Show and Jericho in it and Jericho lasted longer than I thought. The Wyatt brothers as heels was kind of well done, AJ Stiles made his debut and I assume he is going to get a heavy push and was more interesting than Reigns. I did not recognise most of the theme music either (Kane, Gold Dust and Reigns being exceptions) so it was a bit of a surprise as to who came out.
I also liked some of the smaller wrestlers and was interested in them such as Neville and Sami Zayn. Most of the competitors seemed to have some talent at least face or heel the ones that bored me were Mark Henry (never really liked him), Brock Lesnar, and most of the bigger wrestlers who bored me (Braun Strowman being an exception).
Overall I liked it, on to Wrestlemania and Summer Slam and might even start watching RAW and Smackdown. Triple H winning was a bit bleah as I had recently watched him vs Sting on youtube at Wrestlemania 31. There is a time and place for attitude era stars, winning main events probably not one of them but at least he an still perform.
