2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

They tried the worked shoot thing when Cena "hurt" his knee when the Wyatts attacked him. It wasn't very effective and nobody cared once it became obvious it wasn't legit.

 

Perhaps he'll stop doing the dumb-ass diving headbutt now. One of the worst moves in history, even without bringing up the person it's most associated with.

 

Harley Race says he regrets ever creating the move. And not just Name Redacted; Dynamite Kid used the hell out of the flying headbutt and he's been a raging shitbird for years now.

 

This is a bit off tangent, but a few weeks ago, I realized part of my problem with today's wrestling is that the company and the fan are askew. The company is trying to present certain people in certain ways, but the fans are just choosing to cheer and boo for who they want. So you have these really awkward moments where John Cena is supposed to be the #1 babyface, yet his reactions is something a heel would get. Likewise, Bray Wyatt is supposed to be such an evil fella, but he's too damn entertaining so you have people singing that song when he's at the ring. During the most recent Cena/Orton program, you had fans refusing to care about either one and instead just cheer for Daniel Bryan. This is just so weird to see on a constant basis. You do not see this in any other era. Back in the summer of '91, you heard a lot of Ric Flair chants in WCW after he left. Yet that didn't even last very long and it was such a rarity that you pointed to that as one of the most laughable moments in WCW history. Meanwhile, CM Punk has been gone from the WWE since late January (Start of Feb?) and yet I hear you still sometimes hear Punk chants? It's a really weird time to be a fan as the fans are refusing to go along with the program at every turn. That's just the reality of wrestling now and it's part of the reason why I've seen more 80's wrestling this year than 2014 stuff. As much as I hated John Cena starting in mid 2005, I'm so sick of the dueling chants. I realize fans pay good money to buy a ticket and that they can say what they want at live shows, but the live fans are one of the most annoying aspects of today's wrestling. In fact, if you take other US companies into consideration, today's live fans may be my #1 annoyance with pro wrestling.

I don't know, it's all just really weird how wrestling has completely lost control of the fans. The death of kayfabe is likely part of the reason too.

 

That's one thing, that, on the extremely off chance that I ever met Bryan, that I'd bring up. Life hasn't turned out well for guys who've done that move. I wish he'd stop it, or at the very least, save it for a once a year thing.

I remember when You Know Who came back off his surgery and did it in his first match back. I thought to myself that it probably wasn't a good idea that he was doing that, and sadly, I was right.

 

This has happened in plenty of eras. Chris Adams became a tweener in World Class where he would feud with the Von Erichs, but fight other heels as well. That only lasted a short while because he was getting cheered when he was supposed to be booed against the Von Erichs.

Jake Roberts was a heel when he first came in to WWF. He was supposed to have a run with Hogan, but that ended when the fans cheered him for dropping Hogan with a DDT. They just turned him face.

Moolah tried to become a babyface in the 70s in some territories, only fans were so used to booing her that she kept being a heel.

Austin is the most famous example. Fans were cheering Stone Cold like crazy.

I agree that fans are becoming more demanding because they don't want to be fed lame storylines or boring wrestlers. But to pretend that this is the first time that fans aren't obeying the company's definitions of babyface/heel is just silly.

 

The dichotomy comes from the fact that adult fans drive the chants and fill the lower bowls, while selling t-shirts to kids still drives the bottom line.

 

I never said something like this has never happened before, however; there's a big difference between one guy in a company not getting the intended reaction and the entire current company seeing the same type of reactions.

Back in the day, when the fans reacted in a different way from how the company wanted them to, it was a sign that the wrestler was just in the wrong alignment. They just weren't a good heel or a face. Once you switched their alignment or tweaked their gimmick, everything was copacetic.

I'll say this about the Austin one. When things really started to change for him with people beginning to cheer for him, it was a time period where the WWE was booking most of their top acts as tweeners. So he's less of an example of the fans bucking the system and more of the fans being given several options for wrestlers to choose for and they happened to pick Austin instead of the complainers. Even though Austin was still clearly an asshole in late '96, he had some respectability about him too. He was his own man and wasn't placing the blame on losses on anyone else. Most of those other babyface main event acts were doing the opposite. Thus, what's more of a babyface act? Steve Austin or the constant complainer, Bret Hart?

About Jake Roberts, they gave up on a potential Roberts/Hulk feud so quickly that they didn't even have a chance to convince the fans to cheer for Hogan instead of Roberts. Had they actually had a real program instead of a quick little tease, the reactions from the crowds may have been just fine in the end.

Obviously, there's other examples of acts that was failing in their current alignment. Honky Tonk Man's babyface act in late '86 comes to mind (Although, it's very possible the idea was always to have him be a heel, they just had him begin his WWE career similar to Kurt Angle in that he was a fake babyface) and Rocky Maivia in early '97. But man, there's a big difference between Rocky failing in 1997 and the current WWE audience cheering and booing for who they want to react to.

 

I think I see WWE trying to soften the cheering for the heels.

1) Wyatt no longer gets the cheap pop by saying: "(City), we're here."
2) I think Cesaro's doing the swing (which the fans love) less and less.
3) The fans were cheering Bad News Barrett, so WWE had him flat out bash the fans a few weeks ago.

 

Pretty sure he means when Austin had his completely failed heel turn post-Mania 17 and into the Invasion, not when he was booked as a tweener before the double turn with Bret in '96. And he's right, the fans didn't buy that for a second and made the whole run a failure. They've all said turning him was a mistake.

 

Thoughts on Wyatt? Haven't watched wrestling in a while, but may have to start again. Buddy told me Wyatt is hilarious. Agree?

 

I'm not sure he's "hilarious" but he is awesome on the mic and can really work