2013 Pro Wrestling Thread

How about we shitcan the July PPV/whatever month is MITB and make the chamber(s) match(es) into MITB matches. It'll give each PPV leading up to Mania a marquee match as well as open up a barrel of storylines for Mania.

If y'all disagree with that how about we just shitcan February and July PPVs and let there be massive builds towards Mania and summerslam.

 

Obviously the money's going to make it hard to shitcan anything, but I agree. The buildup to the main event at TLC is far and away better than Survivor Series, which is supposed to be "big four."

I'm overthinking it because I was at SS and I was hella disappointed with Big Show/Orton, but yikes I'd have 1000 times rather seen Cena/Orton with this buildup.

 

Who had the better career: British Bulldog or Owen Hart?

As much as I'm a huge Bulldog fan, I'm finding few things that I feel he excelled at more than Owen. Consistency wise, Owen destroys Bulldog. You could almost always count on Owen to produce a good match, even if it was just a short fun TV bout. While Smith had some good moments, WWE wise, his runs weren't too good. His second run (Late 1990-1992) only had a couple of good matches, although you can't blame Smith too much since he was married to Warlord for much of that run. His third run (1994-1997), produced a few more good matches, but also his fair share of duds. His final run (1999-2000), didn't really produce anything of value beyond the six pack challenge at Unforgiven 1999. It's only his first run (1985-1988) that was consistent and loaded with quality matches.

Title wise, I'm not seeing how Smith beats Owen. Neither guy won a World Title, so it all comes down to the secondary titles. Owen dominating the IC Title while Bulldog mostly only dominated the European Title without defending it (Keep in mind his IC Title reign of 1992 was rather short). Hart also had the benefit of winning the King of the Ring to cement his place as the #1 heel for the WWF in 1994.

Owen could talk while Bulldog struggled to say anything well.

Owen didn't really have any poor periods while Bulldog was terrible in his second run with WCW and last run with the WWE.

Both are fairly well known, but due to the way he died, Owen will forever be more known than Bulldog.

The only thing I can think of that Bulldog was better at than Owen was tag team wrestling. While Owen was hardly bad at it, he doesn't have much of a legacy or a high amount of quality tag matches. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs in the mid 80's were one of the most consistent acts the WWE had.

 

The Bulldogs were a great tag team but I always loved watching an Owen Hart match.

 

Here's one thing I rarely see people discuss: Owen Hart never got that over.

British Bulldog's peak (SummerSlam '92) was much higher than Owen's. British Bulldogs are an all time classic tag team.

Owen may have been the better technical wrestler, but Bulldog wins in a landslide in my opinion.

It's also completely false to say Owen "dominated" the IC scene. He had two reigns for a combined 132 days. Davey had one reign for 59 days. Davey won his title in an all time classic match in front of 80,000 people.

The Bulldog was also the very first European Champion. He held the title twice for a combined 253 days (the most of all time). Owen held the belt once for 55 days.

Owen Hart had four World Tag Team Championship Reigns (two with Yokozuna, one with Davey Boy Smith, one with Jeff Jarrett) for a combined 484 days. Davey Boy had two reigns for a combined 539 days.

Let's also not forget that Owen Hart nearly ruined Steve Austin's career.

 

It's really a tough call, because each of them, when they were in the main event role, was in it mostly during the WWF's dark period. The thing is, each of them had one huge moment in the spotlight due to something that they really couldn't control. Davey main evented SS because he was British and it was in England, and Owen was one of the main events at WM X because he was Bret's brother.

Take those away, and both of them were really in a Kane role of upper midcarder-occasional main eventer, but not somebody you're specifically paying to see (Hogan, Austin, Rock, HBK, Cena).

If Davey was from Des Moines, Iowa, he's nowhere near the main event in that match. If Owen's last name is Rumblestilskin, he might have had a mid-90s main event run with Bret due to his talent, but there's little chance anyone would really remember it.

Outside of his run with Bret, and the little fake concussion thing with HBK, Owen's most known for hurting Austin and dying.

Davey had the tag run and his SS match (which, if you believe Bret, he was mentally fried from drugs). He also had that silly first WCW run when he hung out on the beach with Sting and was on the scene when the Shockmaster stumbled. His later WWF runs weren't really that memorable, and that second WCW run is only remembered for him hurting himself on the Ultimate Warrior's trapdoor.

Overall, I'd say their careers are relatively even, but I'd give the slight edge to Smith, because of his tag run. The Bulldogs are still seen as one of the all-time great tag teams. Owen was thrown in a bunch of different tags, but none of them were really legendary.

 

- Owen got some really good heat during his time as a heel. Maybe he wasn't this big draw or anything, but man, it's tough to find a WWE show where Owen wasn't getting the intended reaction.

- Davey may have won the IC Title in a huge match, but what did he do as champion. Quick, name me one successful IC Title match of Davey's without looking it up. Maybe claiming Owen dominated the IC Title was a bit of an overstatement. I'd say the better way to phrase it is that he was the top heel midcarder for years.

- Bulldog was the very first European Title, yet what the hell did he even do with it? For holding a title for over half of a year, Bulldog did nothing with it. It was nothing more than a vanity title. Meanwhile, his second title reign is completely forgettable.

- As I said, Bulldog wins for tag teams. That's the sole category where I'd say Bulldog destroys Owen.

With Owen, you have the better talker, the more consistent wrestler, more charisma, more memorable feuds and unlike Bulldog, Owen didn't have downright dreadful time periods.

 

I think I'd keep MitB the way it is. With one champion, it makes sense if done the way it already is. Think about it this way: Wrestlemania is the biggest show of the year, followed by SummerSlam. With the Rumble, we get a No. 1 contender for the title and we know the match will be at Wrestlemania. The MitB winner is in a parallel position as the No. 1 contender prior to a major show. But there's an extra element: surprise. Does the briefcase holder cash in at SummerSlam or not?

Besides, take away MitB as its own show and suddenly July is just another PPV, no better than a Battleground. I do enjoy how some of the shows have themes. Not every show needs one, but it works for some of the lesser shows, like the July show. Hell in a Cell works well for October, as long as it's not two weeks removed from another lousy PPV.

 

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I was under the impression that most of Bulldog's matches weren't especially good and didn't age that well, except for his match with Bret Hart in England, thanks to the super hot crowd. Owen died young, but his series of matches with Bret alone are still really good. It would have been interesting to see how the back half of his career would have played out - David Shoemaker talks about his Blue Blazer character in his new book, about how it was so against the flow of everything else in the Attitude Era that it oddly kind of fit. However, I don't really remember it all that well.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the Blazer just for that reason.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (not a Ric Flair one either).

 

Went to Ring of Honor Final Battle in New York tonight. Great show. I love how different ROH feels compared to a WWE show.
Best part? I got to bring in my professional camera and, because everyone assumed I was with the crew, had free rein to walk and shoot anywhere I wanted to.
I'll post some photos up at some point this week. Great time all around though.

 

So the 2016 Wrestlemania is coming to Jerry World? My son who lives in Texas told me he'd get tickets for his kid and me.
I told him the main event for that one would be John Cena vs. Randy Orton. Imaginative. And the Undertaker would hobble in and take on Big Show.

Yeah, worth the money.