2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

There's probably a place for limited, well-protected chair shots directed at the head, especially now that fans have become conditioned to not seeing them. And by limited I mean "once in a year or two, and as soon as it happens the match immediately ends and everyone hits the ring to check on the guy". But given a choice between plentiful unprotected shot and no shots at all above the back, I certainly don't fault the major wrestling organizations for choosing the later. As much as we tend to fetishize the Attitude Era, some of those matches are absolutely painful to watch with the dangerous shit being done to heads and necks. It's a wonder more wrestlers haven't been diagnosed with significant brain issues as we're seeing with football players.

 

I don't know. This guy seemed pretty affected to me:

 

Terrific post.

 

Just for posterity:

And I would think that time will come in th next 10 or 15 years when we start seeing more wrestlers being diagnosed with their concussion issues. A lot of the football players now with those problems are guys who played in the 60s, 70s and 80s, when, like the wrestlers, were just told they had their bell rung.

Only thing is, there weren't as many chair shots back then for the wrestlers (frequently just reserved for the main event) and even when they were, they were mostly to the back. The head chairshots were often done with flimsy wooden chairs. It wasn't really until the 90s, more or less, that the hardcore style came into vogue, and guys were getting blasted in the head with the steel chairs.

One who should really be credited for the awareness with concussions is Chris Nowinski, who really twisted the arms of Vince and Dixie into taking a more cautious approach.

 

I heard Chris speak once at a high school concussion awareness seminar in my state. Dude knows his s**t and he's really done a ton for the cause. I wonder how different things would have been had he not gotten injured himself.

 

I've watched that a few times, actually, and that match makes me cringe just because of how many shots Foley took.

That documentary wasn't all that great, but it was a damn good look into the biz.

 

I'd argue he could be one of the top stars today. I really liked that guy when he first came in.

 

I meant more from the perspective of how different concussion awareness would have been had it not been for him. Obviously with cases like HeWhoShallNotBeNamed and Junior Seau, it would have likely become an issue but it seems to be on the forefront of both the NFL and WWE's minds, not to mention at the lower levels of sports, and the rules have really been tweeked the past five or so years to deal with it.

 

Ah.

From that perspective, there's no telling what might've happened.

 

I know we've talked about Husky Harris' new gimmick, Bray Wyatt, on here.

Just read he's injured and is out for six months. They want to keep him in FCW as a manager while he recovers. Hopefully they don't drop this gimmick, because I think it's freaking great.

 

Nobody watching the PPV?

Ziggler finally gets his chance, I hope. He won the MITB SmackDown case.

I think he loses thanks to Vickie's interference and that prompts the break-up and then a new title chase.

At least, that's how I'd play it.

 

The Miz is back