What ticks me off about today's wrestling fan

[ScottyShowman]

Everywhere I go on the internet people are taking about ROH, Ring or Honor is the best thing since sliced bread. Ring of Honor is so much better than crappy WWE and Ring of Honor is better than TNA. But at least TNA has better wrestlers than WWE.

Don't get me wrong ROH is a fantastic company and they do have the some of best contests and matches in wrestling. But brother, if history has taught us anything you don't have to be the best wrestler in the world to sell tickets.


HULK HOGAN the biggest draw there ever was in this business didn't make his money cause he trained in the Dungeon in Calgary or went to a Dojo in Japan. He made his millions off his look, and outstanding charisma.

THE ROCK- Was a big athletic talent since he walked into the WWF but the fans didn't latch on to him and make him one of the most entertaining stars off all time, until he started saying those incredibly creative promos. And The Rock like Hogan was a guy who was on as soon as he stepped through the curtain until the end of the match and then some.

THE GREATEST MOMENT OF THE GREATEST WRESTLING PROGRAM OF ALL TIME-Do you remember when Steve Austin came out in that Beer Truck and soaked Vince, Shane and The Rock with beer on Monday Night Raw. It was awesome. it was frickin funny and so choatic. And we all loved it.

TNA can have a gaunlet match with 40 guys doing all these amazing moves (which don't get me wrong I love) but they get kicked out of the ring and I have no idea who the heck that was. WWE does amazing work with promos always has, even if you don't like someone particularily on the roster they do a fairly good job of telling me who this person is and why I should give a damn about them. They go the extra mile with interview segments and skits.
If I don't know who this guy is or give a damn about him, why the hell am I going spend my hard dollar watching him in the ring.

World Wrestling Entertainment is like that parent that gives it's children unconditional love. You can talk your crap about it and put it down but at the end of day when you want to see them they'll always let you back in the house. Let's face it the WWE is still the Mecka of wrestling. They got the best production and presentation of any wrestling league in world.

You know who my favourite performers in the history of wrestling are
Razor Ramon/Scott Hall, The Rock, The Ulimate Warrior, The Road Dogg Jesse James, Val Venis and Mr. Kennedy not the best mat technicans in the world but man did they make me laugh and enteratain the crap out of me.


So watch ROH, watch DragonGate, watch AAA and I do and I enjoy them very muchroo but don't slam the entertainment side of wrestling because the entertainment side of wrestling had A LOT to do with what propelled wrestling into it's biggest booms.
and remember....


A lot of the stuff that made and makes pro wrestling great has nothing to do with actual wrestling.

 

[The Rated R CMStar]

People want to fool themselves. People want to say "oh no, I like WRESTLING", and hey, you may do, but bottom line is, and Vince has proved it with his success, what people, the majority of people want to see, is Sports Entertainment. They don't want to see people go out and technically, stiff wrestle with one another, they want to be entertained.

Wrestling for wrestling sake is boring. Interviews, promos, confrontations, thats why we really care about the matches. That's why Hulk Hogan slamming Andre the Giant is a moment engraved in history while Hogan vs Big Show in MCW, which I think was a far better wrestling match, is something most people don't even know happened.

Wrestling just doesn't cut it. It's Sports Entertainment that makes the work.

 

[Wrestling Station]

It like this:
Try to compare a novel book to a magazine. The novel book will teach you stuff in details but will consume too much time and you might get bored in the middle of it. While the magazine will keep you entertained by watching all the pictures and colors that are presented within the content, in short sweet fashion.

 

[★Chuck Zombie★]

See, this is where all 3 go wrong: People want things TNA, RoH, and WWE do right mixed together. TNA may have the best wrestlers, but like the OP asked, why should I care about them? WWE has the best hype, and can bring out charisma more than anyone else, but it's almost all gone in a match. I agree with OP that Hogan was one of the biggest draws ever, but I personally think that if he was a good wrestler as well that he would have been even bigger. We need a balance between the good wrestling and the charisma. That's why in my mind, the best wrestler ever is Shawn Michaels. He's not my favorite, but he's perfectly balanced. Chris Jericho is right behind.

 

[Kizza]

It all comes down to personal tastes. I enjoy a pure wrestling match as much as I enjoy a sports entertainment match.

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

^^ The win.

RoH sucks because the fans made it suck and its too overly contrived with all the bullshit moves the little dudes do. Want the best of both worlds? Go watch Puro.

 

[straight_edge76]

Honestly I believe that ROH is highly overrated by smarks, I mean yeah there is good WRESTLING itself but other then the names like Punk, Joe, Daniels, Styles, Wolfe etc. Who really cares about it? Plain and simple it will never be where the WWE is so peole can stop saying that it will. TNA will never imo be where the WWR is either. TNA has the best combonation of the two imo, they have good/great wrestling but lackluster characters and hyping up. WWE don't get me wrong is by far the most enertaining characters and some great in-ring talents but from a purely financial stand-point people will but a Batista/John Cena match then a AJ Styles/Samoa Joe match mainly because they are far more hyped up.

 

[Kizza]

Smarks highly overrate everything. It's whether you agree with the overrating or not.

 

[biggs]

When it comes down to it, a successful wrestling promotion is able to deliver on both the Sports Entertainment and the wrestling. While you can have a great match without a storyline (i.e. Shawn Michaels vs. Shelton Benjamin on RAW back around 2004, 2005), giving the wrestlers motivations behind facing off, even if it's just because they want the title belt, gives fans a reason to care other than if they happen to be a fan of one guy over the other. That being said, great storylines have to have great matches, either from a technical standpoint, or a spectacle stand point, in order to go down in history as a great feud. It really takes both.

 

[Montana]

I wouldn't say it's about "Overrating" it. I enjoy ROH for multiple reasons. I can understand if you don't like it, and the reasoning. No one is forcing you to like it. However if you only watch a few shows, and not really an "chapter" or year of ROH, it's not really fair to judge the product. I don't think it appeals to everyone either, but don't say people "overrate it " when you don't follow the product close enough. (The TV shows is a watered down sample of ROH) If you do follow ROH, please let me know which storylines or matches/fueds you didn't like. Some era's are better than others. But to say you don't like it because it doesn't draw, or it won't be on the level of WWE/TNA isn't a good enough reason to downgrade the product.

What does selling tickets have to do with a enjoying a wrestling product? There is a company out there for every wrestling fan right now which is great. I don't see how if i enjoy ROH better than WWE how that should "tick you off" I used to love the WWE. Maybe I've watched too much of it over the years and have gotten tired of it. Maybe i don't enjoy as much as i did, because man of the top stars are gone, and the new stars just aren't cutting it for me. I was there live when Austin came in on the Zamboni, and I was there Live last year for the Royal Rumble where JBL faced John Cena. I don't hate the WWE by any means, i just think in terms of a product, with their resources they should be putting on a better show. I completely understand them targetting a younger audience with entertainment. I agree with that, but with that being said, it doesn't make the product good or bad. There is too many things in the WWE right now that i don't like follow it close. (Ex. Shaemus as champ)

I agree with everyone in this thread thus far, that wrestling and entertainment must be mixed to be sucessful. I don't feel ROH is better soley because of the wrestling. It's the variety, the storylines, the freshness. I don't like paying 10-15$ per DVD to follow the company, but in my eyes it's worth the extra money.

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

^^^ I used to keep up with RoH, had about 20 dvds from 2002-2006. From 03-06 it was the best Indy in the world beyond a doubt. It was easy to overlook alot of the stupid, overly contrived spotfests from the early days because the storylines were awesome. The Prophecy was cool and having the champ not being the leader was refreshing and it's where I first got a glimpse of Joe. The code of honor was fresh and a nice take on wrestling, making street fights or "fights without honor" seem much larger and taking them back to the feature attraction that they were meant to be. I loved RoH, I'm an old school NWA fan, a Texas boy who was brought up by a father who had hours and hours of World Class footage on VHS and in San Antonio we had South Western Championship Wrestling (Tully Blancahrd's dad's promotion) and apparently as a child I was taken to many a show of theirs and of course my dad taped all their stuff from local tv. So to me, RoH had the old school feel to it with a touch of modernism and strong style that was homage to what I feel is the best wrestling ever, puroesu.

And as I grew into RoH, it grew with me. I was introduced to so many awesome wrestlers like Dragon (whom was trained by the greatest American wrestler ever and fellow San Antonian, HBK)Daniels, Doug Williams, Low Ki and most importantly Punk and Joe. I think three of the top five RoH matches are these dudes trilogy. There were awesome storylines to boot, like Raven and Punk, which is the only time I ever cared to watch Raven and I knew there was something really special about that skinny little heat machine with a terrible dye job and a stupid pepsi tatoo.
My favorite thing about that time period? The fact that RoH could come back stronger than ever after the Rob Fienstein scandal. Everyone thought they were gonna die since they money mark was now a known predophile and TNA pulled all it's talent. But they survived, stronger and better than ever.

I loved the Puro cross overs, And my favorite faction of the decade was also making waves in RoH, the muthafuggin Rottwielers . Just sick stuff, ghetto stomps from the top of bleachers, cop killas on the concrete floor, sick beatings. I loved it. Loved Aires being the one to take the strap off of Joe, the best World Champ I've seen carry a promotion since Austin in 98, the entire Generation Next Saga. I LOVED RoH. It made me a wrestling snob and I completely stopped watchin E and TNA totally for awhile.

But the one thing I always hated was the fans. The smarks. They have continually ruined so many moments in RoH and the dvds, never high in production values to begin with, suffered the most from it. I hated those stupid chants, the complete disrespect of the workers and the awful atmosphere that resonated from it. Just completely took away from it.

Then the exodus of talent really started to hurt. I mean they did some awesome stuff with it, like James Gibson's run, and Corporate Punk saga and Cide, but then the talent pool really dwindled. Dragon was still there but the rest of the lot wasn't doing it for me. Then Spalosky got ran out in favor of sorry as Adam Pearce. The AoTF was cool at first but got old fast. I was basically buying DVDs to see Necro, Dragon, Briscoes and Steen and Generico. By the time they got their tv deal I was done. Chris Hero sucks. I was tired of seeing Nigel hit 55 lariats a match, guys like Rhett Titus and Kenny King aren't any good, the story lines are no where near as good as they used to be, and basically using Jerry Lynn to do a "The Wrestler" storyline just ruined it for me. And now Colt Cabana is back? Yuck. It just isn't what it used to be, which is the best Indy. Hell, PWG in all its comedy lore is a better indy than RoH these days and they use about the same talent. I'll take something thats meant to be comedic than the funny in a bad way of Prince Nana and Jimmy Rave and those sorry ass fans.

 

[Montana]

Then the exodus of talent really started to hurt. I mean they did some awesome stuff with it, like James Gibson's run, and Corporate Punk saga and Cide, but then the talent pool really dwindled. Dragon was still there but the rest of the lot wasn't doing it for me. Then Spalosky got ran out in favor of sorry as Adam Pearce. The AoTF was cool at first but got old fast. I was basically buying DVDs to see Necro, Dragon, Briscoes and Steen and Generico. By the time they got their tv deal I was done. Chris Hero sucks. I was tired of seeing Nigel hit 55 lariats a match, guys like Rhett Titus and Kenny King aren't any good, the story lines are no where near as good as they used to be, and basically using Jerry Lynn to do a "The Wrestler" storyline just ruined it for me. And now Colt Cabana is back? Yuck. It just isn't what it used to be, which is the best Indy. Hell, PWG in all its comedy lore is a better indy than RoH these days and they use about the same talent. I'll take something thats meant to be comedic than the funny in a bad way of Prince Nana and Jimmy Rave and those sorry ass fans.

I agree with you with all that, except the Chris Hero sucks part. (im also on the fence about if PWG is better, i still say no) Like you said the wrestlers keep leaving needing a changeover between mid-card to main event. The booking hasn't been as good lately. I don't think ROH is as great as it was, but still puts on some of the best shows of the year. THe roster has lost some it's top guys, but they have guys stepping into their spots. They still have a lot of talent too Austin Aries, Tyler Black, Davey Richards, Roderick Strong, Steen, El Generico, Kenny Omega, The Briscoes, Eddie Kingston, Eddie Edwards, Chris Hero, Sonjay Dutt, CLuadio Castagnoli, Colt Cabana, and they keep trying their best to bring in top tier talent.

Look out for Kenny King. He's stepped his game up and will likely be a top guy on TV. I can see him main eventing by the end of this year. He can put on a very good match. Also with recent storylines he took out the "wrestler" Jerry Lynn for being too old.

Also Davey Richards, he's putting on the best matches every show just about and is the new best in the world. Pick up Final Countdown tour Boston (Richards vs Dragon) , Aries vs Richards, SOH 4 (Richards vs Kenta) If you want to see some top Richards matches. Has also put on some 4 plus star matches with guys like Kenny Omega, Tyler Black and Claduio.

 

[soulreaper545]

The thing is you can't really claim that a specific company is overrated since it's all a matter of personal taste. while someone may claim that Company A is overrated the guy sitting next to him on the bus may claim that Company B is overrated. Putting this into the post somebody may say that ROH (OP Example) is overrated I may say that the WWE is overrated. Neither of us are right and neither of us are wrong it is all just what we belive personally.